Deku:Demolition Hero
by KReaper35
Summary: AU: Following the dangerous arise of Izuku Midoriya's rare quirk, he and his mother are relocated to a new city. After his first major setback, Izuku's dream of becoming a hero burned brighter. Follow Izuku Midoriya and class 1-A on their journey through UA University to become the greatest heroes. OPFireQuirk! Izuku
1. Chapter 1

Midoriya Izuku like all children wanted to be a hero growing up. However, at four almost five years old his quirk still had not appeared. And the delay of his quirk had also brought about the ostracization of his peers. His once best friend Bakugo Katsuki or Kacchan was no longer his best friend or even his friend in general. And today the other kids got out of control and now Izuku had to explain the bruises to his mom.

"What happened sweetie?" Midoriya Inko, his mother, asks. Izuku's mind flashes back to after school where the other kids made fun of him for still not having a quirk. He jumps into his mom's arms fast and hard like a bullet before he starts crying. He tells her all about his day from getting to school to all the bruises that he got from his once friend. Inko sets her son down on the chair and goes off to the bathroom to get a first aid kit to deal with his injuries. Its beyond frustrating for this to be a problem at school, especially since her son is so young. First thing was first though, dealing with the injuries. She comes back with disinfectant and All Might bandages. After cleaning up Inko decides that to help cheer Izuku up it would be best to get to the bottom of what is happening with his quirk and set an appointment with a doctor for the next day.

The next day Izuku was bouncing on his way to the doctor's office. This was his chance to get rid of the nickname "Deku" once and for all. Arriving at the doctor's office he is put through some of the standard tests before he and his mother are sent into the room to wait. Izuku's doctor, Dr. Tsubasa, comes in and sets up a picture of the x-ray they had taken moments ago.

"According to modern science, quirks are the next step of evolution in human beings. To this day we have no idea where they came from, however one sign points to the lack of a joint in the pinky toe. Your son also seems to lack this joint so most likely his quirk will appear soon." The doctor started.

"Is there anything we can do to help this along?" Izuku's mother replied. That was the last of the conversation Izuku caught as he began to fantasize about his quirk. The doctor said he should get one soon. That meant that everyone would stop worrying about him soon and then he would be on his way to being just like All Might. He was bouncing so much that he dropped the All Might toy that he brought to the office with him.

"-yes, that's right my husband's quirk is to breathe fire and mine is a weak form of telekinesis." Inko said as she grabbed the toy from the ground with her quirk. She gave it back to Izuku as he continued to play in the office. After they finished at the doctor's office, Inko stopped to get ingredients and then headed back home. After dinner and putting Izuku to bed Inko put Izuku to bed and tried to get herself some rest.

Inko woke up to small arms tugging at her roughly. The first thing she took in was the smoke all around the apartment. It was all over and she could feel it filling her lungs. She grabbed Izuku and made a dash for her open door and into the hallway only to be stopped by the fire in front of her. She was about to just run straight through when suddenly, the fire cleared to both sides. It was a straight line to the door and as much as Inko wanted to know what happened getting to safety was the most important thing right now.

When she burst out there were several rescue crews, heroes, and firemen in the area helping other families out of the apartment complex. As she started heading down a fireman quickly spotted her and quickly brought her over and began checking her and Izuku over. She had suffered from inhaling too much smoke, but otherwise would make a full recovery. Izuku on the other hand had not suffered from anything at all through the fire despite his young age. Inko began putting the pieces together at the information and realized that her son had finally awakened his quirk. If only she knew the hardships it would bring.

"So basically Mrs. Midoriya due to the nature of your son's quirk we cannot accept the risk of housing you in the city any longer. There are two options either find an insurance company that will insure your home and possessions with such a volatile quirk or move into an approved community." Inko took a moment to process the information it came as no shock that due to his quirk there would be some problems with an insurance claim, but she never expected to be forced out of her home.

"What are our options" Inko asked hesitantly.

"You can move to the Asakusa area. It's a poorer area, but with your son's quirk we can reasonably assume the damages he causes in that area. It may seem a little unfair, but most other companies will have you living on the streets." Inko weighed her options in the event that this was true she and her son would be on the streets and they would have to fight to survive. At least this way there would be a roof over their heads. Naturally she had to do what was best for her family.

The day they left their home Izuku Midoriya learned two very important lessons about the world. One the world is not fair to anyone, and two that not all people are born equal.


	2. Chapter 2

The ride to Asakusa was nothing to be amazed about but in Izuku's mind this was the first step towards a bigger goal. Though his mom wouldn't admit it he knew that it was his fault they were forced to move away from their previous home. It was hard on him, but he promised to make the best of it. He and his mom unpacked all their stuff within the hour. Not much was left after the fire anyways.

His new house was a two-bedroom one story wooden house. Ironic considering the problem was he couldn't stop burning things. The first thing they did was get him enrolled in school. Little Izuku was so excited.

Scratch that this school was worse than his last one. Despite the fresh start and not being known as "Deku" anymore the day quickly went into a downspin. Bullies are rampant in the school and by the end of the day he was just as beat up as normal. Arriving home, it didn't look like his mom had a much better day. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked even more stressed. Izuku didn't like Asakusa so far.

It was after school several weeks later that Izuku began to find himself once more. He was wandering after school seeing his mom so out of it lately had begun wearing on him. She came back looking worse and worse every day. It was almost impossible to ignore at this point and it made him so upset. Since his quirk awoke, he would burn things if he couldn't keep calm and there had been strange itches at odd places on his body like his back and right arm. It was getting to the point that he could barely stand it.

While walking he came across a rundown building in the middle of nowhere. He hadn't seen the building before and walked towards it cautiously. Izuku peered in and was amazed by what he saw. There was a man and his daughter sparring. As he was enamored with the fighting, he didn't notice that the door was sliding, and he fell disrupting their match.

"Who's there!?" The man yelled. When he saw it was just a boy, he became less agitated and came to him more calmly. "What are you doing here, young man" he asked Izuku who at first had been ready to run when he yelled.

"I was just walking when I found this place" Izuku answered honestly. The man looked at Izuku curiously for a moment before asking him to leave politely. But Izuku had already been overtaken by what he saw. "Please will you show me how to do that stuff". He looked him over once more before shaking his head no. Izuku then began to beg for him to teach him. The man eventually caved.

"If you can land a single hit on my daughter, I will allow you to learn from us." The man offered and so began the longest month of Izuku's life. Immediately after school every day Izuku tried to land even a single hit on the girl, but he couldn't seem to manage to touch her. The girl was about his age, but she had spent more time learning from her father than he had fighting in his life. He was completely outmatched, but the girl was not happy. She knew he had a quirk from listening to him offhandedly talk about it, but he hadn't even attempted to use it. It was infuriating and that's why she wouldn't give him even a sympathy hit.

As much as Izuku hated to admit it, not feeling like he was improving was frustrating. And that frustration boiled over when his quirk exploded violently one afternoon. The father quickly put it out with his own quirk which turned out to be the control of fire. Izuku passed out and woke up at home on the couch. He returned the next day and was surprised to see the father and daughter duo waiting for him.

"Despite how ugly, technically you landed a hit. Starting today you'll meet us three times a week and we'll help you master that power of yours." Izuku burst out in steam, and his training began.

The man later introduced himself as Benimaru and his daughter's name was Maki. The primary problem that Izuku came across was control. His fire power was extraordinary, but without control being a hero was just a far-off pipe dream. The first step on his journey was being able to activate his flames at will. His first exercises simply involved activating his quirk without getting overwhelmed. Given that they only met three time a week much Of Izuku's training was done in privacy simply getting little flames to dance across his skin and extinguishing them before they got out of control. Though it took the better part of a month Izuku eventually was able to maintain his flames and his composure.

The next part of his training began shortly after that. After offhandedly mentioning the fire that brought him and his mother to Asakusa, Benimaru began to show Izuku the basics of controlling his fire. "These forms that I am showing you will help you essentially control your fire at will. Though I suspect to some degree you can already do that." And for the next month Izuku worked through the forms without his quirk simply learning the motions and feeling the pull of his quirk beneath the skin. The following month Izuku began to add his own quirk along with the forms and began to feel a sort of pull and control over the flames that he had not yet experienced. And as he slowly began to gain control over his quirk Benimaru threw a wrench in his plans.

"Considering that you already have begun to show some talent in using your quirk it's about time we get you started on some exercise. Nothing too intense because you're still a kid, but simple games to make sure you're using your muscles and not letting them vegetable away and become reliant on your quirk."

"Yes sir!" Izuku yelled as loud as his little voice could carry. And so, he took up simple sports and games like soccer in order to stay in good shape physically." With this began a long pattern of building and maintaining habits that would last a lifetime and ultimately benefit him. Later in his life Izuku would be thankful he had picked up such things. As it made building and muscle and good eating habits easier to abide by. And finally, the time had come. From his early failed attempts at throwing even a simple punch and not being able to activate his quirk Izuku began putting it all together in the form of sparring with Maki. Despite both their quirks being fire-related in raw fighting terms Maki was lightyears ahead. However, she was kind towards Izuku and walked him through fighting and controlling his quirk simultaneously. And so, began a long stretch of fighting, working, and reworking in order to become a more able hero.

In the end of Izuku and Maki's sparring sessions finished with a record of 0-1,248 in Maki's favor.

9 Years Later

Asakusa was different than most towns Izuku had learned. Pro heroes couldn't really be found around there so it was mostly lawless. It had its own private forces for emergency services and villains ran rampant. Izuku was supposed to meet his teacher Benimaru, and his daughter Maki today, but he ran into trouble along the way there from school. Three men had surrounded a young woman and were holding her up for money. He had improved in using his quirk and in a few years his goal was to go to UA University, so this was his chance to start.

"Scram brat unless you don't want to make it home tonight" Izuku sized all three men up and threw his bag behind him. Then fire shot out from his foot separating the men from the girl and creating a straight path for her to escape through. Before they could react, flaming arms reached out and smashed two of the men together. The third man reached for a gun and tried to fire, but the bullet wouldn't fire, and he was also smashed by a flaming arm. Izuku waited there until the volunteer police force arrived and arrested the men.

It was the first of many stops for Izuku. His eyes blazed green and he blew through villains like a storm. The red-orange circles around his eyes made him stand out, and like a fierce animal he blew through Asakusa's villains. The city embraced him and called him the cities pride and that was the only way to describe him. Another nickname spread to the rest of the world and villainy alike to beware the Demolition King.


	3. Chapter 3

The day of the UA entrance exams was finally upon Izuku and though he had earned a title for himself in his little town this was an entirely different stage for him. And this was made entirely too clear when an eerily familiar head of blonde hair brushed past him saying something sounding like "move it small fry."

It was irritating for the blonde asshole to push him aside, but he was training to be a hero. Sometimes you had to let things like that go and just keep moving forward. So that's exactly what Izuku did he took his first steps forward into UA. And immediately tripped and began to fall on his face. He groaned internally as the ground quickly approached. "Hell, of a way to start the exams."

As he braced himself, he was suddenly overcome with a feeling of weightlessness. He looked around and found a brunette girl with what looked like a permanent blush with her hand outstretched. She grabbed him and righted him before touching her fingertips together. "Release. Sorry, I shouldn't have used my quirk on you, but it would have been bad luck to fall before the exam, right? This is nerve-wracking, huh?" Before Izuku could properly gather his thought, the girl had already wandered off into the halls of UA saying something about wishing each other luck. Based on the girl's kindness, Izuku has hope that this school will be great alongside other hero hopefuls.

Izuku was ushered through the halls of UA. Even as the top hero school in the country it was massive within. There were tons of kids being ushered through until eventually he found his exam room. He was seated more towards the back near the blonde from earlier, but a little bit behind him. One of the teachers came in and handed out the tests. In all honestly it was a good amount of information packed together. None of the problems were complex, but it was an application of concepts they should have learned to make sure they were all at a certain level. There were a few questions that Izuku struggled with, but he finished it with enough time to look it over once more. The most concerning thing was simply making sure that he at least attempted every question.

Eventually after the tests were rounded up, a new teacher came in. He was a tall blonde with pretty cool shades. "Alright listeners can I get a YEAH"

"YEAH" Izuku looked around as he and Present Mic were the only ones to celebrate. Izuku immediately covered his head as the rest of his testing hall stared in his direction. Present Mic seemed satisfied and began to go over the parts of the practical exam. He introduced each of the three robots from one to three points and took special amounts of detail to explain them. Almost as if he were trying to get people to pick up points.

Then it clicked! Logically there was no way that people with less offensive quirks had no way to go about this exam, but offensive quirks didn't make heroes. So, this was to give them a chance to score some kind of points. But that couldn't be just it, there must be something more to the…

Izuku's train of thought was suddenly interrupted when a blue haired student suddenly stood up ramrod straight. "It says on the pamphlet that there would be four types of robots, if that is a misprint by UA then that reflects badly on the university. And you in the back with the green hair stop your muttering some of us are trying to listen." The blonde in front of him snickered a bit at him getting reprimanded. All the class's attention was on him again, but before he could say anything Present Mic called the attention of the class back to himself. He explained that the zero pointer was more of an arena trap than anything. That comment immediately caught Izuku's attention. That probably meant that it would be more trouble than it was worth to take down and nearly impossible for people without offensive quirks.

Eventually they were all dismissed and left to go to the changing rooms to prepare for the men's examination. Izuku found himself in one of the less crowded men's locker rooms changing before the exams. He had brought some black athletic shorts and a gray sleeveless shirt to change into. As he was mentally preparing himself to go through the practical, he started hearing off-handed comment as he went down the hallway.

"Is that the guy from Asakusa"

"Yea, that's him"

"Why does he have on makeup and what's with those stupid bandages around his arm does he think he's good enough to take the exam injured"

"Those fuckers always get so full of themselves as if any of those thugs could be heroes."

That was as much as Izuku could hear as he turned the corner and headed for the bus station that would take them all to their exam sites. Izuku got on and road over to site B. As he looked around the people taking the test, he saw the same brown-haired girl from earlier. She was obviously stressing about the exam and Izuku decided that he would try and help her out since she had helped him earlier. As he started to make his way over to her he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing? That girl is obviously trying to focus, are you intentionally trying to distract us so that we won't do as well?" His comments caught the attention of most of the other examinees and they focused in on Izuku, writing him off completely as someone who could not compete for one of the remaining spots at UA. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. That nice girl had made him think the best of these people and yet they weren't heroic in the slightest. They've done nothing but disrespect him and his town since he got here. He yanked his shoulder free and looked the blue haired boy dead in the eyes before marching past him and away from the rest of the test takers. He'd show them what Asakusa had to offer one way or another.

He could see Present Mic on top of the large gate that was starting to open. His eyes started to glow a bright green and the air around him began to heat up before he heard Present Mic yell start. As the other examinees tried to gather themselves from such a sudden start a flaming blur flew overtop towards the city.

"There are no countdowns in the real world, at least one of you has the right idea!" That got the rest of the examinees moving, but it was all just background noise for Izuku after all… the festival was starting.


	4. Chapter 4

Izuku flew past the competition before flying into the open gate of the arena and immediately incapacitating one of the robots with a flaming chop. He could distantly hear the other examinees closing in and decided to cut through an alley and try to look for less congested areas to fight the robots in. As people started to file in Izuku began to indiscriminately exterminate the robots around him. Because he attacked the robots on the edge there were fewer robots to fight, however, there were also fewer examinees to compete against not that they would be having much of a chance now. Izuku was working through robots when he came across an examinee that seemed to be struggling to beat the robots and was surrounded by three of them.

Izuku was going to leave the kid to his own devices, but then he'd be no better than the guys that made fun of him all day. Izuku surged forward and slammed the first two robots into the ground with flaming arms and kicked the third in its weak spot. Izuku gave the kid a once over and to sum up his findings he was disappointed. The kid was scrawny to say the least and he didn't seem to have anything that looked like a muscle on him. He looked a bit rough up too, so Izuku decided to give the kid some advice, so he didn't die.

"Each of the robots have a specific weak spot. If you watch the way they approach, it will become pretty obvious." Izuku took a quick look around before finding an acceptable target. He sliced a nearby stop sign with his flames before holding it out in front of the kid.

The guy looked at it apprehensively before taking it. "The way I cut it should give you some offense and defense to at least get some points. Don't get yourself killed out there." And with that Izuku flew off into the distance to try and secure some more points and get an idea of how others were doing.

The UA staff watch on eagerly as the potential students worked through the entrance exam. There were a few students that had already been disqualified due to unheroic conduct, and a few who didn't seem like they had a chance at UA at all. They looked on as two students clearly stood out. A blonde in arena A that seemed to clearly have some kind of explosive quirk, and a boy with green hair who seemed to have some type of fire quirk.

"Offensively speaking those two seem to be in a class of their own, but there a lot of hopeful candidates who could absolutely make the cut." Said the pro hero Midnight. Some of the other pro heroes nodded in agreement trying to take in as much information as possible from the multiple flashing screens. The principal had a bright grin as a blonde skeleton looked on interestedly. He would later this year be on as the first year's heroics teacher. He would have to manage teaching them and training his successor.

Considering that he could only do hero work for three hours a day these days, he could probably manage that. Principal Nedzu then pulled out button and across every arena emerged a giant robot.

Izuku was loosely focusing on destroying all the robots that came to him, but he kept getting distracted by some of the other competitors biting off more than they could chew. They obviously didn't have quirks that helped with fighting robots. Keeping them from getting hurt wouldn't affect his chances too badly. At worst he wouldn't get the first spot in the exam, but it didn't matter where he placed as long as he made it in.

As he reached the middle area where most of the others were taking the exam, he finally had a chance to take notice of some of the others' quirk. There was a kid with black hair who was literally carving through the robots bare handed. The blue haired kid seemed to have engines on his legs that he was using to propel himself forward and carve through the robots, and gravity girl was letting robots crush each other.

Present Mic called that there was five minutes left and everyone began to pick up their efforts. Robot parts were flying left and right and suddenly there was a deep rumbling. The mother of all robots emerged from deep within the city heading dead for the area all the examinees.

Izuku could see the robot from his vantage point and the path of destruction it left in its wake. Many of the students took off running immediately, abandoning the robots in front of them to attempt to grab more points from areas not affected by the robot. Since it was worth no points, Izuku was about to turn around and gather more points of his own before he heard a cry. Several cries.

An entire group of students had been trapped under rubble.

If you asked Uraraka Ochako how her day was going to go she wouldn't have thought much of it. Of course, she was nervous for the UA entrance exams, but she never thought that she would be in any real danger while she took it. Now her and tons of other students were stuck under rubble as a behemoth hurtled towards them. Nobody was turning around to help them. This was probably it.

All Might was panicking. He could come up with a few minutes to go save the kids in exam site B. No one else seemed to be worried about it at all. The other teachers were watching intently as if they were waiting on something to happen and he couldn't wait anymore. He burst up from his seat only for Principal Nedzu to put a hand on his arm to keep him from moving. Before he could speak Nedzu smiled and gestured to the screen in front of him.

Izuku, encompassed by flames, flew down to help the others. Flaming hands protruded from his body to assist in removing the rubble from the students. He moved the rubble as quickly as he could, but the robot was still barreling towards them. As the robot closed in, Izuku abandoned his efforts to quickly free the students and instead chose to take care of the robot. The zero pointer was massive, but he couldn't risk injuring any possible competitors surrounding.

The robot came flying forward and Izuku steadied his breathing before making an arc with his right arm. The arc resembled a sun over his head, and he focused on the oncoming form of the zero pointer as he crossed his arm behind his head.

"Iai Chop, Form Seven: Sun Wheel"

The zero pointer stopped its movement and suddenly was blown back by the overwhelming flames around him. The flames blew through the zero pointer and melted all its circuitry. In an instant the menacing bot was reduced to nothing but a giant metal statue. Izuku was thoroughly unimpressed, but maybe some of the remaining bots would be more fun.

"And that's time ladies and gentlemen"

An old lady with an oversized syringe in her hair and a cane started coming through towards the downed examinees. Izuku did his best to finish freeing them while she went through and healed them. Once he was sure everyone was free and in good hands, he returned to the locker room to get his things and returned to Asakusa.


	5. Chapter 5

The days following the entrance exam saw Izuku in good spirits. Every inch of his body held that enthusiasm as he made his way to UA. The people of Asakusa could feel his energy in the swiftness that he dispatched villains. His biggest goal now was to continue training his control in order to continue to improve.

Returning home early one afternoon Izuku checked the clock. It was a bit before his mom would get home, so he decided to take a quick shower and have a relaxing afternoon. He thought back to everything that had taken him to this point. The quirk he once thought was the biggest hinderance had finally become his strongest ally. As he undid the bandages on his arm and back, he looked over the aftereffects of his quirk.

On his back was a deep red mark that resembled a lion with a scar over one eye. On his right arm was another deep red mark that resembled a dragon. They had formed a bit after he started training, but the marks had to be covered due to the misconceptions they brought forward. After all UA would never let someone who looked like a delinquent even walk through their gates. Reminiscing on all the hours of training Izuku cleaned up before reapplying his bandages and getting a drink from the fridge. Suddenly his mother burst into the house holding a very thick letter.

"I-Izuku" his mother huffed "its from UA" Those words alone shook Izuku from his stupor. He grabbed his mother with a flaming arm and dragged her straight to the living room couch and tore open his letter. Which turned out to instead be a disk which immediately started playing when it hit the table.

"Greetings, Young Midoriya" Izuku and his mother both stared at the letter mouths agape. All Might himself was doing his letter. He and his mother were so shocked that they did not notice anything that he said until nearly the end when he announced that he had somehow placed first in the exam due to rescue points.

'Interesting' Izuku thought 'so that was how they planned to help those with non-offensive quirks' As Izuku took in that he somehow managed to place first, he checked some of the other names that he saw in the top five and found one that he recognized. One Katsuki Bakugo who had managed his top five spot without a single rescue point. Izuku remembered him, his old best friend "Kacchan" as he called him. His name had been so hard to pronounce at the time. He wondered if he would even remember him. At some point his mother had lost contact with the Bakugo family as well and that was the end of that. He hoped in his time at UA they could reconnect even if they hadn't made the same class. Which reminded him "WHICH FUCKIN' CLASS AM I EVEN IN!?"

His mother had been so excited by the news she let the cursing slide just this once and went to the store to get the ingredients for his favorite food, Katsudon. Though his diet had changed and he himself had changed a lot over the years, his favorite food remained the same year in and year out. While she was gone Izuku himself began getting some of his things together. The moving process wouldn't start itself and he couldn't wait to move into the UA dorms.

The week before he left it felt like all of Asakusa had come to visit him and celebrate some. They all had some kind of gift or something to bring to Izuku and his mother. There was very little that he could do but accept it. It was weird to think since he had spent so much of his time there, but the next chapter in his life was about to start and UA University was his next stop.

Thanks to everyone's hard work they had even set up and were getting new pro hero offices in Asakusa. It wouldn't be any hugely named heroes, but they could probably take care of themselves and the small-time villains who would pop up every now and again. And at worst Izuku could probably come deal with any bigger threats on the weekend. It would be another excuse to come see his mother without saying he missed her.

And finally, the big day arrived. He got dressed that day and loaded his things up into the car that Benimaru had. He and Maki were both actually going to UA, but she was more interested in the management aspect of heroics. The ride over was quiet. They loaded all of their luggage onto the train and soon he and Maki were in their train car. As the train started to move, he looked out the window to see his mother running along the train. He poked his head out the window to see what was wrong.

"IZUKU, YOU'RE SO COOL" and that was all the motivation the tears needed to come out. As the steam came off his eyes, he let a big smile take over his features as he waved to his mom. His next stop was UA where he would make his mom proud.

The management dorms were at a different part of campus so Izuku and Maki separated once they were on campus. They arrived in the early afternoon so there were tons of students on campus. Unfortunately, due to it being a heroics school it took a lot of special time and permissions to get parents on campus so most of the moving was done by the upper-class students who had earlier move in days. Izuku got his bags to his dorm easily enough as he didn't have many things that he wanted to bring with him: a few heroics posters, an old laptop, some toiletries, and clothes. These items would make the basis of his UA career.

As he walked in, Izuku noticed some of his classmates talking excitedly. There was a pink skinned girl with horns talking excitedly with a girl with what looked like long ears. A boy with bicolored hair was going up the stairs and gave him a nod. Another boy with balls on his head was mumbling about… something.

Izuku smiled and went to take his things to his room. He would unpack and come and meet the class later hopefully when there were more people there. Arriving in his room, he noted that it was a standard dorm room. They provided him a bed, a desk, and a dresser. The bathrooms were a community bathroom for both genders on the first floor. He excitedly unpacked all his things. Classes started tomorrow so he had time to meet some of his classmates, shower, and train a little before bed. Don't want to make a bad impression on his first day.

Coming back downstairs he found a few more of his classmates excitedly talking. There was a red-head talking with the pink girl, and a girl who looked frog-like had joined them. In the corner, he saw a boy with what looked like a bird-head. As he was looking around at some of the group, a voice sounded from behind him.

"Ah, it's you! You're the one who destroyed the zero pointer right!" It was the girl who could control gravity. "I just wanted to make sure I thanked you properly for your help at the exam. By the time I woke up, they told me you were long gone." It took Izuku a moment to remember what she wanted to thank him for, but it clicked eventually.

"Oh, it was nothing, anyone else would have done the same thing" Izuku and the girl talked for a bit and he finally found out that her name was Uraraka Ochaco. He thanked her again before heading out to get a bit of training in that day. Considering he didn't know much about the campus; he did his training near the dorms and didn't add his quirk. Merely working through some of the forms and feeling the energy move freely through his body. He practiced for a few hours since it had been a while since his training had been completely quirkless. He couldn't let himself be caught off guard in the heroic's world after all. Izuku trained until it was dark and when he returned only a few people were still in the common room.

Izuku snuck to the fridge and grabbed a drink and a snack and headed up to his room to grab clothes and a towel for a shower. After his shower he headed straight back to his room and set an alarm for early that morning. Tomorrow his first day at UA began. He was all fired up.


	6. Chapter 6

Izuku's alarm went off early that morning signifying the start of his heroics career. But first he needed to get ready for the day. Starting with showering and eating breakfast, the most important meal of the day. He picked up some cereal and a banana. It was a light snack, but something to get him to lunch time. He got his bag and some of the required books and headed out. He saw a couple of students in the dorms as he left, but overall there were not many people up that early.

As Izuku wandered through the hallways, he found himself unable to navigate, due to the fact that at the entrance exam he was led in a group to his exam room. And even then, he couldn't remember what room he had been assigned to. Honestly, it was probably a good thing that he headed out as early as he did. Eventually a friendly upperclassman pointed him in the direction of class 1-A. The door to the room was, in a word, massive.

The door was probably designed for those with mutation quirks that made them insanely tall. This was the first step towards his future as a hero. He opened the door and was confronted with the boy he recognized as "Kacchan" and the blue-haired boy from the exam arguing.

'On second thought, Class 1-B is looking fucking marvelous right now' Izuku thought. As he took in the rest of the people in the classroom, he noticed the boy with the bi-colored hair and a very mature looking girl. And at the front of the room he noticed a class roster that assigned them seats. His seat was directly behind Kacchan. Was it too early to try and transfer classes?

The rest of the class began filing in. As they filed in, some of the class formed groups and began to talk while others simply talked to their seat neighbors. Izuku personally put his head down and tried to rest his eyes before his homeroom teacher arrived.

As far as UA went, all the teachers were also pro heroes. He wondered who they would have dealing with Class 1-A. Suddenly the door flew open and there was a yellow sleeping bag in the doorway. It inched forward like a caterpillar before arriving behind the teacher's desk and a man emerged from it. Izuku stared intently as the man pulled out a series of the UA gym uniforms. "It took too long for you guys to get quiet, as heroes you need to be more rational. I'm Shouta Aizawa your homeroom teacher, meet me outside at the practice field in five minutes." And with that he walked out of the room and headed towards the practice field.

Izuku and a few other students stood first to grab their gym uniforms and headed towards the locker rooms to get changed. It didn't take long before all of class 1-A was changed and out on the field. Their teacher looked around at the gathered students before sighing and pulling a strange looking ball from the scarves around his neck. "Bakugo, you got the highest number of villain points, what was your furthest ball throw in high school?"

"84 meters."

"Good, now try it with your quirk."

Bakugo gave a menacing grin before winding up and letting lose a vicious explosion. "DIE!" The ball sailed into the distance and Mr. Aizawa held up a small phone displaying his results. 790.5m.

"The school board still doesn't allow quirk use on physical tests like these, but they're behind the curve. Rationally, we can't measure your progress unless we see everything you have. So, I'll be testing you in eight physical tests and you'll use your quirks." Some of the class expressed excitement for the tests, but that was apparently a bad move. "And did I mention last place will be instantly remove from UA." That instantly brought a ton of tension to most of the class. The bi-colored boy, the mature girl, Bakugo, and Izuku excluded.

Izuku consistently placed in the top four for each of the first five events. All that was left was 50-meter dash, the grip test, and the ball throw. Izuku lined up with Bakugo and they exchanged a look before the race started.

"You remind me of some useless Deku I used to know."

"Oh, do I Kacchan?" Bakugo looked surprised for a moment before the sound signaled to start. Izuku released flames from his hands and feet and burst forward quickly. Finishing the race in 2.07 seconds. About half of Bakugo's time. And overall the best time seen in the 50-meter dash.

That absolutely infuriated Bakugo and he immediately ignited his palms, he wanted answers. As Bakugo rushed to Izuku, he was suddenly wrapped up in a hard cloth. Their teacher's eyes were glowing red, and he was restraining Bakugo with the cloth around his neck. "Why the hell aren't my explosions working!" That comment caught Izuku's attention, his teacher was definitely a person of interest. But first was focusing on not getting sent home.

For the grip test, Izuku used one of his signature flaming arms to apply a good amount of pressure to his grip. He could only manage about 500kg before he would have started to burn away the metal of the grip tester.

And finally, the ball throw came around. Since Bakugo had already gone it was left to the rest of the class. The only notable scores were the mature girl, Yaoyorozu, Izuku thought, and Uraraka who got a score of infinity.

Finally, it was Izuku's turn. Before he threw, though, he had to ask a question. "Mr. Aizawa is there anything in that direction I should avoid hitting?"

Aizawa glared at him for a moment before responding "No, now hurry up so we can get this over with." Izuku had a big grin on his face as he used his fire to send out three flaming rings directly in the path that he was going to throw in. He spun around with the ball and launched it through the rings. As it passed the rings, the ball exploded outward like a cannon. It flew deep into the distance before eventually a large spout of flames erupted into the sky. Aizawa could barely contain his grin as he looked to his device. The ball had gone nearly two kilometers. Finally, Aizawa tallied the results for the quirk apprehension test, but they didn't matter because no one was getting expelled.

They went back to their homeroom to get their syllabi and head back to the dorms, Izuku was surrounded by members of his class talking and asking about how he got the ball to go that far. Rather than talk about himself, Izuku took the time to learn about his classmates and their quirks. He had learned a great deal about his present classmates. Most of them seemed very talkative aside from Kacchan and the bi-colored boy who he found was Todoroki.

The invisible girl, Hagakure Tooru, bounced excitedly around the group returning to the dorm, consisting of her, Ashido Mina, Kirishima Ejirou, Iida Tenya, and Uraraka Ochaco. "So Midoriya what is your quirk called? You used your fire in so many ways I'm curious about it now."

"Yes, I too am curious of your quirk especially since you scored number one overall on the entrance exam." Iida chimed in.

Izuku, who had grown accustomed to being the center of attention due to his time in Asakusa, didn't flinch in the face of conversations. "My quirk is called Pyro-Technic, I can create and manipulate flames at will."

"That doesn't explain how you launched the ball that far." said Iida.

"Oh that, I fixed those first flames in points at a distance ahead of me, while also adding my own flames to the original release. My flames from my hand launched it forward fast, but with the extra flame rings I accelerated it even faster so it would go farther. Basically, I made a cannon with flames and shot it. I got the idea from Yaoyorozu." Izuku explained.

"So, you had never done anything like that before?" Uraraka asked.

"I had done something similar, just never on that scale. That's why I had to ask if there was anything I should avoid before I tried it." Izuku explained as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Truly a model UA student if only we could all…" As Iida went on a rant about how they should all try to be so aware and respectful Izuku let his mind wander. The dorms were in the distance and Izuku felt at home at UA. This is the goal that had seemed so far away when he burned the house down. Now he was here among all these amazing people ready to become the next generation of heroes. He couldn't help the dopey smile forming on his face.

"-do you think, Midoriya"

"Ah, sorry I wasn't listening" and the entire group burst into laughter as they walked into the dorms. There most of the group broke off. The rest of the class was so tired after the apprehension test that once the stress had worn off most of the class was in for the night. Once the commotions of the day died down, Izuku walked through his forms in his room before showering and going to bed. He had a lot on his mind, but he wanted to reconnect with his old friend the most, but that was a problem for another day.


	7. Chapter 7

Izuku's second day at UA started much the same as the first. Some light training to make sure he didn't get rusty, a shower to make sure he was fresh and ready for the day, and a quick breakfast before making his way to class. Considering that their teacher, Mr. Aizawa, had basically taken care of their hazing, it should be time to get a real UA experience. Unfortunately, the real UA experience was seemingly more focused on the school aspect than the hero aspect. They were being taught by heroes, which was amazing, but that excitement was quickly drowned out by the overwhelmingly boring lessons they were taught.

Eventually they made it to the last class of the day. Most of the students were asking about who their heroics teacher could be. Given that he hadn't seen the man all day, Izuku had a sneaking suspicion of who it was. And his suspicions were answered when the door burst open suddenly "I am, coming through the door like a normal person". The class erupted into cheers of excitement as they saw it was All Might who would be teaching their heroics class. Some commented about how cool it would be to learn from the number one hero others, Izuku thought he heard Asui comment about how that was his silver age costume.

All Might moved to the helm of the room before he began speaking again. "Today's trial will be…" He produced a card with the word battle on it. "Battle Training!" Bakugo had an almost feral grin as he looked on at the card in All Might's hand. "And the first step of that is looking the part!" All Might suddenly produced a button from somewhere in his costume before hitting it revealing 20 cases that came forward from the wall. "These cases follow your seat number in class, so grab your cases, change, and meet me at Ground Beta." With that All Might zoomed off before the class ran and grabbed their cases and headed to the changing rooms. Izuku found his case and slung it over his shoulder before following after the rest of the class.

When he arrived in the locker room some the class was just starting while Todoroki had already finished changing and walked out towards Ground Beta. Izuku opened his case and looked through the contents and smiled. Him, his mother, Benimaru, and Maki had worked hard on this suit and it was great to finally be able to put it on. He put on the shirt first, it was a black shirt with green trim with a full-length left sleeve and no right sleeve. Next was the shorts, black shorts with a green trim at the waist and legs, but with white lines stretching the length. Finally, a massive black fireman's coat was over his shoulders with the same design as his pants. The coat itself was so long that it went past his knees.

Izuku walked out with what was left of the guys to find most of the class out in front of All Might. He appeared to take a quick headcount before he began again "Now zygotes, you look the part now it's time to divide you into teams for a 2v2 battle trial." At this point the class exploded with questions about the exercise. All Might seemed to be overwhelmed before slowing them down and pulling out cue cards to better explain the activity they would be doing. Izuku looked over to the board where All Might had divided them up. He would make up a team with Uraraka and go against Bakugo and Iida. They would be the heroes with the goal of capturing either both villains or the fake bomb. The villain's objective would be to capture them or protect the weapon. Maybe the second day wouldn't be so boring.

As Uraraka and Izuku looked over the schematics of the building Izuku was curious about if she had a plan ready. "So Uraraka do you have a plan?" Izuku asked.

"No, I'm actually really worried about this because of how high those two scored on Mr. Aizawa's test." Uraraka explained. Izuku looked up to the building ahead of them and thought for a moment before he replied.

"Honestly the most solid strategy for them would be to let Iida search the building while Bakugo stayed back and protected the bomb, but from what I understand it will likely be the opposite. My plan is simple we'll intercept them and overwhelm them with number, an absolute victory." Uraraka looked stunned at the confidence that he delivered the plan with before nodding, and just in time because All Might called a start to the exercise in their headsets. Izuku took the lead with Uraraka a bit behind him to maximize their strategy. If she could go unseen and capture the enemy, then this would be over in no time.

Sure enough Bakugo erupted around the corner, his palms out and primed to explode. Izuku reacted by signaling for Uraraka to look for an opening while he redirected the palm aimed towards him. "So Deku, you finally found some fucking guts" Izuku squared off with Bakugo taking a simple stance before Bakugo raced forward right-hand glowing with another explosion. Izuku met him halfway grabbing his wrist and flipping him onto the floor hard.

"Uraraka now!" Izuku yelled as his partner took that moment to surge forward and try to capture the stunned Bakugo, but Bakugo wasn't just acting tough and quickly regained his bearings. Exploding his palms to launch himself up and over Uraraka and down the hall a bit. Bakugo scowled as he looked upon the two before igniting his palms again. He changed up his movements in air to be slightly less predictable learning from his first couple of straight-forward engagements, but ultimately, he couldn't land a blow on Izuku who he perceived to be the bigger threat so far.

Bakugo landed back on the end of the hallway before deciding on a new course of action and a feral grin plastered itself to his face. "I doubt you remember it because it's been so long, but my quirk works by exploding my sweat. I wonder what would happen if I ignited a ton of it at once." Bakugo grinned as he raised his gauntlet towards them. Uraraka was currently a bit ahead of Izuku from another attempt at wrapping up Bakugo.

The hallway erupted into light as All Might yelled at Bakugo to stop. The fire sped forward as it sought to engulf everything in its path before suddenly stopping and reshaping around both Izuku and Uraraka. All Bakugo could make out from within the flames was a brilliant green. Suddenly the fire entered Izuku's mouth and he seemingly ate the entire attack at once. Uraraka sat shell-shocked as Izuku cleaned his ear with his finger. "God, All Might can fucking scream."

Bakugo looked pale at first before his expression hardened and he rushed forward again. All his explosive punches were tossed aside, and the explosions themselves were redirected and did more damage to Bakugo than anything else. Ultimately Bakugo could only see red. Thisdeku should have been a pebble in his path, yet he was more affected by All Might screaming in his ears than any of the attacks Bakugo threw at him. He let out a yell before rushing forward again. Suddenly his explosions cut out and Izuku caught him with the capture tape before slamming him into the ground roughly. "And that's for putting my partner in so much danger. Are you alright, Uraraka?" Uraraka dumbly nodded and Izuku extended a hand to help her up. While making sure she was all right, they heard All Might call for five minutes remaining in the exercise. Uraraka began to panic, but Izuku picked her up by the costume as he headed up the nearest staircase. As she struggled to get free Izuku spoke to her again "It doesn't matter how much time is left, what we need to focus on is finding the bomb and a good strategy to save as much time as possible." Uraraka broke out of her desperate struggle and nodded before they finally heard a small amount of talking in the room.

Apparently, Iida felt the need to get into character for the exercise. Uraraka and Izuku both laughed a little as Iida realized they were in the room with him. It had been stripped bare of everything Uraraka could have used and he stood dead in front of the bomb. As he began to start another monologue about how the heroes could not get past him. Izuku started to circle around the room. Iida followed him with his eyes until Izuku walked behind a pillar and Uraraka surged forward to make a move on the bomb. Iida grabbed the bomb and ran away from her into another corner of the room.

Iida then caught sight of Izuku making an 'ok' sign with his hands before he disappeared from his line of sight again. Suddenly Iida was on the ground and Izuku was the one holding the bomb. As he set it on the ground lightly, Izuku extended a hand to help Iida off the ground. All Might called an end to the exercise and all four of them made their way back to the observation room. All Might asked the rest of the class to name an MVP of the match and Yaoyorozu quickly responded. She named Izuku the MVP, but some of her comments came off as more criticism than areas that could be improved upon.

All Might went on and added some of the things they could have done to improve. As Iida and Uraraka began to get down on themselves, Izuku tapped them on their shoulders and gave them a thumbs up and a smile to try and encourage them to work harder moving forward. They seemed to take it well as they smiled and listened intently to All Might and watched the next matches even harder. There were a lot of good matches, but Izuku found that he didn't too much care for some of Yaoyorozu's commentary.

Most of it was spoken in absolute, but most of the matches were close enough that some small strategy changes could easily change the outcome. She was definitely smart, but the absoluteness with which she casted judgement seemed to point to her thinking there was always one correct way to do things. A very inflexible train of thought for someone with such a versatile quirk. Honestly a self-imposed limit.

Finally, they got to the last match of the battle trials. It was underwhelming, but impressive. In an instant Todoroki froze the entire building to secure the bomb. It was overwhelming power against the other team and all Izuku could do was grin as Todoroki unfroze his classmate's feet and they made their way back to the training ground.

From the matches Izuku could tell that some of his class had experience training before they made it to UA, and ultimately it was coming up to be a very interesting year. All Might sprinted off because he had somewhere to be and the class went back to their respective locker rooms to get changed and Izuku was finishing up getting his uniform on when he heard an unnatural sound.

"Our upperclassmen have left us this wonderful gift, and I for one will not waste- "As Mineta made a dive for a peep hole a flaming arm extended from Izuku's body and grabbed Mineta by the head. Another arm extended from the flames and grabbed Mineta's case as Izuku threw his own over his shoulder and made his way down the hall back to homeroom.

"You know you can't be peeping, its disrespectful to our classmates, and yourself since you aim to save people." As Izuku carried Mineta back to class to drop off their cases and then back to the dorms to keep him out of even more trouble, Bakugo went to the training grounds to begin working again. He'd seen so much today that he felt like he couldn't compete with stupid fucking Deku to the half-and-half bastard, he wasn't as invincible as his school life led him to believe.

Meanwhile a half-decayed newspaper sat on a bar counter. The front headline: "Symbol of Peace Begins Teaching at UA!?"


	8. Chapter 8

The next day much of the class broke into groups as they walked towards the main UA building from the dorms. Some of the commuter students were being hounded by the media about what it was like to be taught by All Might and Izuku scoffed. Bunch of fucking vultures. Izuku made his way into school with his little group currently consisting of Iida and Uraraka. They made their way to class. As they rest of the class arrived, they broke into groups to talk for the morning before taking a seat about 2 minutes before class.

When Aizawa walked in closer to class time, he was pleasantly surprised to find his class was already beginning to act more rational. With that he handed out the grades from the indoor battle assignment and made some major points to go over for the future. "And Bakugo you can't be such a baby every time you lose, or you won't make it long in heroics. And with that we'll start the next part of our day." The class held their breaths as this was probably another expulsion threat in the making and it was nerve-wracking. "Today you'll be picking a class rep and vice-rep while I get some rest."

As some of the class were stunned that it would be such a normal school activity, others were already starting their own miniature campaign to secure one of the spots. Izuku himself wasn't too worried about it since he had never been much of a leader himself. And he was even less worried once Iida suggested they decide on the positions democratically. Especially since he could tell so many people in the class had wanted the spots themselves. "Mr. Aizawa is it ok if we hold a small election to get it done?" Iida inquired.

"I don't care as long as it is done before homeroom ends." With that Iida distributed a piece of paper to everyone in class. Some of the class still had their concerns because of the short amount of time they'd known each other. However, Iida convinced them that because of that only the most capable of people would earn enough votes to be considered and with that the voting process began. Izuku personally voted for Iida seeing as how he got the whole vote together so quickly and he seemed to be ready and able to lead others as stiff as he could be.

And with all that information present it made Izuku even more surprised of the results. He had somehow managed to acquire five votes himself and Yaoyorozu had come in second with four votes herself. Izuku reluctantly accepted the position as his classmates encouraged him that he would be the best for the job. Honestly the main thing that made him nervous was his remaining reservations about Yaoyorozu, but he would wait a bit longer before he assumed anything about her.

With that the rest of the day proceeded rather uneventfully from there. The pros still placed a high amount of value in making sure that they were educated well and eventually they made it all the way to lunchtime. Izuku's small group that he arrived with had seemingly multiplied through the first part of the day. His once small group had come to encompass almost half of the class. They were currently talking about the election from earlier in the day.

"Honestly I don't really care who voted for me, I just want to make sure I live up to everyone's expectations." Izuku said.

"It is comments like that which make me believe we made the correct decision in making you class rep, Midoriya." Iida began. "You possess many of the same qualities I admire in my brother Tensei, he is actually the pro hero Ingenium and he has over 65 sidekicks." That comment starstruck the table as many of them had heard of Ingenium and they had his brother among them. Izuku was flattered to have been compared to such an established pro hero.

As the conversation began to pick up, suddenly an alarm flared. All the students in the cafeteria began scrambling to escape until Iida caught one of the upperclassmen by the arm. They explained that the alarm was caused by an intruder entering the campus.

With that Izuku's group got up and moving and made their way into the hall only to get slammed against the wall from various angles. At this rate someone was going to get seriously hurt. That's when Izuku noticed Iida signaling at him to look out the window, and what he saw was disappointing. The way everyone was reacting you would think it was a villain attack, however it turned out to be reporters already getting repelled by the pros. With that his course of action was decided and he used his flames to make a big 'X' in front of the group of rampaging students which seemed to get their attention. With that settled, Izuku spoke to the group.

"Honestly you guys should be ashamed of yourselves, it's just the fucking media. Now act like you know how to evacuate without killing someone." Some of the students looked embarrassed while others looked out the window to confirm for themselves the level of the threat, but overall the evacuation went more smoothly following Izuku's intervention. As they made their way back to the classes Izuku noticed something odd about the gate. 'Hm, maybe something to look at later.' When the school had finally finished repelling the media, Mr. Aizawa came back to homeroom to make sure the class was accounted for.

Once he had confirmed they were all present, he sent them back to the dorms for the day so that they could investigate the forced entrance by the media. It was during this time that Izuku also took a bit of a stroll around the campus to look at the damages himself. What he found was shocking. He had seen the gate this morning standing tall and strong and now here it was a few hours later a heap of dust. It had to be the work of a quirk, but who from the media wants to risk their livelihood for an interview with All Might.

The only theory that made sense was that someone unrelated to the media had forced the gate open and the media simply used it as an opportunity to get their next scoop. Izuku looked out into the streets and saw nothing but the normal cityscape ahead of him. 'Interesting indeed,' Izuku thought as he turned heel and headed back to the dorm. Since they had been excused so early, there was plenty of hours left in the day. He would definitely go check on his classmates now, then get started on using the time he'd been given. As Izuku was about to turn the corner, he felt something and whirled around suddenly. The streets looked exactly the same as before, but the sensation was gone.

He shrugged it off as a figment of his imagination and headed back to the dorms to find his classmates. He wanted to make sure they weren't too badly shaken up in the chaos. Arriving back to the dorms, he found most of his classmates in the common room enjoying each other's company. Seeing this Izuku felt like he had to join them for a bit. After all they would be his peers for the next three years and he was their class rep. At some point they had to connect.

"So, you're sure that was him" Asked the first man.

"Absolutely that was him, I've only heard about him in rumors, but that was definitely Asakusa's demolition king" began the second. "If he's gonna be at the spot when Shigaraki invades forget trying to kill All Might. You won't have a chance."

That made the other hesitate. Asakusa's demolition king was a monster to face and was a large reason why the area experiences so little villainy today. If he was truly at UA, and part of the plan was to attack a class that had All Might teaching it… He paled thinking of fighting both All Might and the demolition king. It would be an absolute slaughter and they'd all go to jail without accomplishing a single thing. They rushed to the hideout where most of the villains had been coming in and out of recently.

They walked into the familiar bar and took a seat, waiting for the man behind the counter to notice them. The man, made entirely of mist, finally noticed them and came over to their table. "Gentleman what seems to be the problem?" The men looked at each other wondering who was going to start before one of them spoke up.

"We need to see Shigaraki." The second man finally said. And the mist man's eyes widened slightly before he went down past the bar and upstairs to get the young man After a bit of waiting, the mist man returned followed by another set of footsteps and a raspy voice called out from behind the mist.

"Who wanted to see me, Kurogiri" rasped out a voice from behind the now named mist. The men waited until Shigaraki was in front of them. Behind him they could see Kurogiri messing with the schedule that would decide their plan tomorrow and decided to just rip the bandage off. They told him all about the young vigilante that they saw on UA's grounds as Shigaraki began to look annoyed and then he started nervously scratch his neck until he broke skin. When a voice called out from the now on TV set in the corner of the bar.

"Shigaraki Tomura," the voice began, "this demolition king is a nuisance, but it's nothing a small adjustment won't fix. I have a few people that can help take care of this new issue, do not worry and proceed as planned." The finality of his voice gave the impression that there was never an issue at all. And that was almost as unnerving as the sheer presence that came from the TV. As bad as that kid had been when he looked in their direction, this felt smothering and almost overwhelming.

They were thanked for their information and left to prepare for tomorrow. They were filled with a certain unease and confidence, but with the backing of such a terrifying man there is absolutely nothing that the heroes have that could stand in their way. They made their way calmly through the streets. Their part of the plan was to be ready and in position at the promised time and then kill these fucking kids and All Might too.

Overall it had been an odd day, but with Cementoss's help a new gate had been put up by the end of the day. The staff was a bit unnerved by this obvious attack on UA, but it didn't seem to affect the overall security of anybody at the school so all activities could still proceed as planned. If they faltered at this, then it would look like weakness on UA's part. With only a small class of first year's away from the main facility and the Symbol of Peace to help watch the class hopefully everything will be alright.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning at UA Izuku couldn't shake an odd feeling. It was a strange sensation like every inch of his body was uncomfortable, but he still had class today there was no point in skipping for something so trivial. Checking the time, he figured he had time for a stretch and a short jog around the campus. Coming out that morning in sweatpants and a hoodie, he found Iida stretching in front of the dorm's entrance. Izuku spoke up first "Had the same idea this morning Iida?"

"Ah, Midoriya, yes I decided that it would be good to get a nice jog around campus in before classes started. Of course, you would think the same. How diligent of you!" Iida replied

Midoriya could barely hide his grin as he watched Iida chop his arm. "You up for a friendly race around campus, two laps?"

"Of course, it will help keep both of us sharp." Izuku finished stretching and set a timer that would signal the start of their race on his phone. When it sounded, they both took off into the distance determined to win the competition. Ultimately Iida was too much for Izuku, but they both made great times around the campus. As they returned to the dorms, they noticed not all their classmates were up and about yet. Only about a quarter of the class was up and they all looked tired. Since he still had a bit of time, Izuku slipped off and got ready for class and headed in early.

Leaving early for once, he was the first one into class. Even beating Iida and the rest of the early morning people. Being that early gave him a chance to greet everyone of his classmates on their way in and get them situated a little before Mr. Aizawa walked in for class.

"It looks like you're all becoming a little more rational, good, let's get started for the day." Aizawa said in his same dreary tone. And so, the school day began at UA. They hadn't been there a full week, but they were falling into a somewhat normal schedule at UA. Since the freshness of having pro heroes as their teachers had started to wear off, UA started to look more and more like a normal school. Which led to them flying through the day and arriving at lunch in seemingly no time.

Izuku's group that he normally sat with had started to expand from just Iida and Uraraka to taking up almost a full table at lunch. He even noticed out of the corner of his eye that Bakugo had his own little group starting to form. It put a smile on his face to see his old friend starting to make actual friends, not like those assholes from when they were little. Izuku focusing back on the conversation at his table which was mainly about the work that had been given.

"Midoriya, did you understand how to do the stuff Ectoplasm was showing us?" asked Jiro, who had joined the table along with Yaoyorozu and Asui.

"Trust me, I'm definitely not the one to ask for help with homework," Midoriya began, "Maybe Yaoyorozu would know though." The girl looking up from her extremely large lunch. She seemed to take pride in being named as the one to help and instantly began to break down some of the problems given in class. Izuku listened intently as his school was not always the best at explaining certain concepts. And learning from someone who had obviously absorbed the information could only help in the long-term. Honestly from her explanation it was clear that she had a deep understanding of math beyond what they were learning in class. And at the end of lunch they all came back to class to finish the rest of their classes before heroics. They pushed through the last few classes of the day. Most of the class was excited for their next foundational heroics class. They were waiting for All Might to burst into the room again in the same fashion as before when suddenly Mr. Aizawa entered the room.

Fear entered the class at the thought of Mr. Aizawa teaching their heroics class. Suddenly he held up a card that said 'rescue'. "Today's class will be a special class away from the main campus, it will be taught by myself, All Might, and another surprise hero." With that announcement, Mr. Aizawa hit the button to get their costumes out of the wall. "Some of you may decide on not using your costume if you feel it could hinder you, or if it was damaged in the earlier exercises." The class burst into excitement and was immediately met with Aizawa's glowing eyes to shut them up.

With order regained, Aizawa left the class to their own devices. Non-surprisingly everyone chose to use their costumes. With that they all headed straight to the changing rooms and got changed and headed out to find a bus waiting to take them off campus. When Iida saw the bus, he began trying to get the class together to get them to file into the bus easier, but Izuku and Yaoyorozu informed him the bus wasn't structured that way. He was deflated but filed in regardless with Izuku and Yaoyorozu taking whatever open spaces they could find at the end. Mr. Aizawa sat at the front near the driver. As the bus pulled away from UA's front gates, the class burst into chatter.

It was mainly idle chatter about what everyone thought was going on or how excited everyone was until Kaminari caught everyone's attention. "You know Bakugo could be a great hero if his personality wasn't ass." That caught everyone's attention and the blonde in question voiced his objection. Kaminari, however, continued his rant "It's really telling that we all know your personality sucks this early in the year. Even though you're up there with the powerhouses, your personality might hold you back."

That comment sparked a different conversation from Kirishima. "If we're talking about powerhouses with flashy quirks, it's definitely Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya." A lot of the class voiced their agreement of the assessment and at that point Izuku joined the conversation.

"There are a lot of people in the class you shouldn't overlook though. We all must have potential since Mr. Aizawa didn't expel us." At that some of the class perked up from the encouragement.

"I mean that's true, but I just wish I had something flashier than hardening so I could get noticed myself." Kirishima said looking a little dejected.

"I mean it's simple, but simple quirks are the best. They have less weaknesses to them. And besides with a quirk like Hardening, you can definitely take hits better than us 'powerhouses." That seemed to simultaneously make Kirishima perk up and Bakugo seemed to have to restrain himself with the seats. At that point all conversation was cut off by the bus arriving at their destination. It was a huge dome shaped building. The class looked at it awe struck as they got off the bus. They had been so focused on their conversation they hadn't even noticed the building coming into view. Aizawa chose that time to speak up.

"This is the USJ, where All Might, and another teacher will be waiting for you." With that Aizawa led the class inside where they were introduced to the space hero: Thirteen. There seemed to be a noticeable lack off All Might which Mr. Aizawa asked about. They turned away for a moment to talk about it and when they came back Aizawa looked even more annoyed than before. He mumbled something about irrationality as Thirteen addressed the class.

"Some of you may not know me, but I am the space hero: Thirteen and my quirk is- "

"Black hole right! Its such a cool quirk, you save so many people with it!" Uraraka interrupted in her excitement. And when the class started to get riled up again Aizawa regained their attention with his glare before Thirteen continued.

"Yes, and as many people as I have saved, my quirk is dangerous and could just as easily be used to kill." That statement horrified the class. "Just as you all have amazing quirks, you can also harm others with them. Today's lesson is to put together your lessons from All Might and Mr. Aizawa in order to learn how to best use your quirks to rescue others." With that everyone clapped for Thirteen and her speech. The class started to look around the USJ when suddenly the lights flickered. Mr. Aizawa started calling out orders for everyone to stay away from the entrance.

"Is this part of the exercise?" asked Kirishima.

"No! These are real villains!" Aizawa called out as the villains started to file in from a portal. Aizawa started to take count on the villains as he put on the goggles that were hidden in his capture weapon. He launched himself at the villains below. Several of the villains ran forward to intercept him, but found their quirks not working and were quickly dispatched. Suddenly a giant wave of ice poured out from one of the zones coming dead at the class.

Due to Thirteen's position she couldn't use her quirk because of the kids in her way and as the ice closed in the temperature started rising. Izuku threw his arm forward and a mass of flames came out and stopped the ice from advancing. Izuku frowned as he tried to locate the source of the ice when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. As he turned to see who it was, he saw an unfamiliar man holding onto his arm. Before he could react, he suddenly felt as though he was pulled through a tube. When he re-emerged, it was raining, and his head was spinning a bit.

When his vision and head finally returned to normal, Izuku found three villains in front of him. The one who grabbed him and two others. One had ice creeping from his feet and the other seemed to be cloaked in shadows. He glared at the three villains as they started to circle around him.

As they started to make a formation around him, Izuku found a nearby stop sign and heated it up to remove it from the ground. He flung it at the roof above him blowing a hole in it. He then manipulated the flames around the stop sign to make a thumbs-up sign. Even if his classmates didn't know exactly where he was, he could at least let them know he was okay.

The villains took this as an opportunity to send both ice and shadows forward. Izuku rolled out of the way and headed down a nearby alley. It was only when he saw ice in front of him that he realized his mistake. This part of the USJ had been specifically prepped for him. Not only was it raining, but they had also made an ice area to lower the temperature and make it even harder to fight against them. The ice even blocked off most of the roads ahead of him that he could escape to effectively walling him in and forcing him to fight the villains head on.

The villains emerged from the alley with the teleporting one in the back. Most likely so Izuku would forget about him and he could get clean hits on him while he was distracted. With the odds beginning to stack against him, Izuku took a fighting stance and stared all three villains down. The first two sent a large area attack forward and Izuku stomped down his right foot sending a fire wall to intercept the two attacks. The teleporting villain surged from the side and cut Izuku's cheek with a knife. He teleported away before Izuku could attack and suddenly one of his feet was encased in ice.

A shadowy fist sent him crashing backwards as he rolled back to his feet to take account of the situation again. The ice and shadow villains were maneuvering to be as far apart in his vision as possible while he couldn't see or hear the teleporting villain. Realizing his disadvantage, he ignited his feet and took to the air to put himself in a better position. As he flew up, he looked over and saw a black portal opening in another part of the zone. Before he could see what came out, he was hit in the back and sent careening towards the ground. The other villains also seemed to be preparing to intercept him with attacks. Taking a deep breath, he blew fire out at them to preempt their attack.

The ice villain made a dome to block the fire and as Izuku's attack ended a shadowy arm surged forward. His arms were grabbed from behind by the teleporting villain who disappeared again as the attack connected. He landed with a groan and sat up slowly as the villains began to speak.

"This is the 'demolition king' that they were so worried about, what a joke!" One villain mocked.

"He's definitely strong for a student, but nowhere near enough to need experienced guys like us, and definitely not a king." Izuku stood up slowly and locked eyes with the three villains. The ice and shadow villain moved forward together and hit him back towards the frozen wall. Hitting his back on it, he was suddenly struck with an idea and smirked as the villains began to pelt him with attacks. He focused his flames into arms in front of him to block the attacks as he let them push him into the wall. The villains had gotten so cocky they didn't notice until it was too late that their ice wall had melted to the point that Izuku could retreat.

He ran into the nearest building and sat for a moment to get his plan together. 'The biggest problem is the teleporting villain, but he could only land hits because I couldn't maintain flames in the rain. Its time to turn the tables on them especially now that they've gotten overconfident.' As Izuku tried to plan how he could track the teleporting villain, he remembered a distant lecture in an old broken-down building.

'Remember Izuku, when you're fighting you need to be aware of life. Your life and the life of your opponents that way you can be less tense when you fight. You'll also be able to distinguish between lethal attacks.' Izuku recalled. It had been one of the last lessons he had learned before he left, but he could never master it. Instead he had always just relied on opponents giving away their position because of the heat he could release, but that wasn't an option right now. Izuku smirked, remembering all the hits he took trying to perfect it. "What was that old phrase, better late than never."

Izuku smirked as he heard footsteps nearing his building. He gathered his flames and burst forward through the wall and faced down the villains one more time. Using his flaming arms, he shot them at the shadow and ice villains as the teleporting villain shot forward again. Izuku noticed that he seemed to be moving only within his line of sight, but Izuku's goal was to learn how to track him better. He exhaled and listened. The villain moved around quickly leaving several small cuts across Izuku's clothes and face. Suddenly Izuku felt a sensation from behind and ducked. The knife the villain had been using flew over his head and Izuku slammed a flaming arm into his torso full force sending the villain sliding into the wall knocking him out.

When he made contact with the villain, Izuku caught the knife in his mouth and flung it forward with his flames at the wall next to the shadow villain blowing him into the building next to them. Then Izuku was on the ice villain in force. "Iai Chop, Form One: Fire Moon.' Izuku blew the villain back, knocking him out.

The shadow villain finally emerged from the building and found his two allies knocked out. When Izuku noticed him, he started to let his flames roam free melting all of the ice from earlier. The villain could only make out green eyes staring him down in the fire. The villain felt a familiar sensation of fear, and that made him act rashly.

"You're just a student! Don't underestimate me!" The villain ran forward and Izuku blocked his attacks with his hands. Two flaming arms extended from his back and smashed the man down, rendering him unconscious. Izuku looked over the men and grabbed them with a flaming arm each and dragged them to a light post before heating it and wrapping them in it.

With that taken care of Izuku made his way through the zone to see if any of his classmates had ended up here. Hopefully he wasn't too late.

Meanwhile the rest of his class looked on in horror as Thirteen was hit with her own quirk and went down, and the situation was looking dire. With the pro down it would be up to them to make an escape route for Iida to get back to the school and get in contact with the other pros. Otherwise they would be left at the mercy of the villains. The villain seemed to be underestimating them since their task was to deal with Thirteen, and they decided to try and take advantage of that. While Thirteen was trying to suck the villain up earlier, Sero noticed what appeared to be a metal brace. All he needed was a chance to stick it to the villain and hopefully they would be able to send for backup. Suddenly Ashido launched acid at the villain sending it flying down, and close enough to Sero where he had a chance to wrap him in tape. With the villain wrapped the stronger members of the class used the connection to keep the villains distracted as Iida made his escape.

As he tried to pry the doors open and run the villain regained his bearing and tried to open a warp gate only to be hindered again. Then Iida finally pried the door open and used the engines in his calf to start making his way back to UA. It would take a bit for him to get to campus and return with backup from UA, but this would be their best chance at making it out of here.

**A/N:**

**I promise I'm reading all your comments. I'm just an awkward noodle that doesn't know how to respond. Thank you for all the comments and support!**


	10. Chapter 10

Izuku stretched out as he started taking note of his surroundings. The rain in the zone was still coming down and he couldn't hear any villains, so he assumed that no other villains would be coming to intercept him; which would give him an opportunity to take note of the rest of the zone. Flying into the air he looked around and found himself more towards the edge of the arena meaning they were using one of the walls to keep him boxed into some extent. Flying more towards the middle of the zone, he started to hear fighting. Moving towards it, he saw a familiar tail and shadow fighting below.

Izuku landed on the side of one of the building and began taking stock of the situation. 'If I remember correctly, Dark Shadow is negatively affected by light. If I just jump down there, I could do more harm than good.' Watching carefully, he took in as much information as he could including a floating pair of gloves that he had initially missed. Looking over he could also see that they were getting forced back into a corner. The villains had all circled around them and Izuku had enough.

He burst forward and overwhelmed the villains. They looked over at Izuku and Tokoyami stepped forward despite seemingly being at a disadvantage. Izuku turned around and raised his arms up in a sign of surrender. "Woah there killer, I come in peace." Izuku grinned as Tokoyami recalled his quirk.

"A ray of sunshine emerges from the darkness." Tokoyami replied. He looked over to Koda and gave him a nod letting him know everything was alright. With that Izuku decided to introduce them to his plan.

"I'm pretty sure I saw a wall nearby that we can break through and try to get our bearings. Follow me and we can get the hell out of here." Tokoyami and Koda nodded and followed Izuku straight to the nearest wall. He blew the wall straight open with a flaming fist and was halted by an interesting sight. Looking straight ahead he could see Kaminari falling into the water towards villains. Suddenly the water electrified and several of the villains floated to the top of the water. Most of them seemingly paralyzed. Looking up he could see Asui's tongue extending toward the water and towards Kaminari. And he could loosely hear Mineta nervously mummering about something to himself.

Once Izuku got an understanding of what was happening; and once Kaminari was out of the water, Izuku stuck his hand in the water and ignited his hand. In an instant the entire flood zone became a dry wasteland. There was still water coming in, but for now he could make sure the unconscious or villains that were stuck by Mineta's quirk wouldn't drown. It was a great plan given the circumstances, but they could accidentally kill one of these guys and Izuku couldn't live with that.

Meeting up as Asui came down into the ground, Izuku noticed that Kaminari was making a very dumb face and couldn't stop smiling with his thumbs up. Izuku looked to Asui expectantly and she took a moment before she spoke.

"His quirk is electrification and after a certain voltage he short circuits his brain and becomes what you see now, kero"

"That's a pretty significant drawback to be able to use your quirk." Izuku replied, accepting the answer for what is was.

Izuku looked at the group consisting of approximately a quarter of the class. "Listen, you guys make your way back towards the entrance with this large of a group and it should be easy to get around quickly and protect each other. I'm going to search some of the other zones and check to make sure the rest of our class is ok." Before Izuku could hear any arguments, he had already flown off towards another zone that was boxed in with a dome. He burst in through the top and was astounded to see almost nothing but fire all around. Suddenly he began to realize that the villains had made a specific plan to keep only him in the zone he would have the worst advantage. Especially since Asui ended up in the flood zone where her quirk probably worked best.

It was troubling at best, but at the moment he had to make sure the rest of his classmates were alright. Flying through the zone, he heard a bit of yelling in the distance and flew towards it. When he finally managed to locate the fighting, he found Ojiro and a floating pair of gloves against the wall, surrounded by at least a dozen villains. Acting quickly Izuku landed on two of the villains dead in the center of the group and gathered flames quickly.

"What the-!" Before the rest of the villains could react Izuku released a ball of fire from within the group and blew them all away quickly. One of the stronger villains managed to dodge the attack and landed a few feet away before arms extended from the fire behind him and smashed him down into unconsciousness. Ojiro and Hagakure could only gawk as the two of them together had struggled to maintain themselves among the villains and in an instant their classmate had overwhelmed them singlehandedly.

"Were you the only ones here?" Ojiro could only nod as Izuku began to move them in some direction. When Ojiro had finally calmed down some, he was staring at a wall when suddenly the flames behind them moved forward and forced a hole in the wall and extended into the next zone. With that Izuku asked both Ojiro and Hagakure for a hand and flew them into the next zone which seemed to be mountainous zone. Only to find a similar situation involving the vice rep and Jiro. They both had some type of weapon most likely from Yaoyorozu's quick, but they were surrounded by villains and had barely made any progress against them. None of the villains even looked remotely tired.

Izuku and Ojiro reacted the quickest upon landing and rushed forward to take some of the pressure off them. The crowd split in half as the villains started having more and more trouble with each of the individual groups. Eventually, they finished off the last of the villains and Izuku could assess the status of each of the students around him. Among his current group, there were no major injuries, but there was a small problem of the exhaustion some of them were facing. Given the conditions and who knows how long they had been fighting, it was a wonder they were still standing. It was most likely adrenaline.

Looking towards the central plaza, Izuku could see that Aizawa was still making good headway on the villains though it appeared as though one of the villains, the one in all black covered head to toe in hands, was watching something. It would unfortunately be a problem for later. "Do any of you have any idea what's going on in the rest of the zones?"

With the question up in the air, most of the group shook their heads, but Jiro spoke up. "From what I could hear from some of the other zones, it sounds like Iida managed to escape and is currently making his way back to UA. But that's about all I could catch so far." Izuku took the good news in, knowing it meant that as a group the class just had to make it a bit longer before the pros arrived and they would officially be out of this hell. With that he turned his attention back onto the central plaza where Aizawa was fighting. He appeared to be slowing down a bit and with the number of villains that were left, not including the unmoving hand villain and the thing next to him, it is not looking good for Aizawa. With those two wild cards still on the move there was probably a lot of fighting left.

"There was one more thing I managed to pick up earlier too. The reason that they're here is… to kill All Might." Izuku looked back at the central plaza. Looking at how many villains they had managed to recruit in the area, it wasn't a stretch to say that they had to have confidence in this plan especially if this was their ultimate goal. It was most likely where either the hand villain or the creature came into the picture. Turning back to the group Izuku decided on his next course of action.

"Yaoyorozu, what exactly is your quirk again?" Izuku asked with a serious expression.

"I can turn the fat in my body into any inorganic object." Yaoyorozu responded quickly.

Thinking over it one more time, Izuku said, "Do you know how to make matoi?" Yaoyorozu paused for a moment before pulling a book out from somewhere and flipping through it a bit before she nodded. Izuku smiled and spoke again, "If you can, I need you to make five of them." Yaoyorozu looked a bit concerned about giving up some of her quirks fuel, but quickly relented and began making them. About halfway through the process, Izuku saw the hand villain grab Mr. Aizawa's arm which appeared to disintegrate where he made contact.

Izuku looked on shocked and as the other remaining villains tried to overwhelm Aizawa, the mist villain returned to the hand villain's side. Izuku also noticed the group he had left earlier had made it more towards the central plaza. And apparently it was a bad time as the hand villain instructed the monster to make its first move. Aizawa was immediately smashed into the ground and judging by the bend of his arm and Jiro's sudden wince Izuku would assume that his arm broke.

The hand villain then stopped his agitated scratching at his own neck before appearing to calm for a moment before turning slightly. Izuku realized what was happening and was ready to leap into action, luckily Yaoyorozu had just finished the last matoi. With that he spun the one in his hand and ignited it. Using it, he flew dead towards the central plaza. "Throw the rest of them in the air!" The command left no rooms for arguments and each of his classmates grabbed one of the remaining matoi and threw them into the air. Suddenly they ignited and flew after Izuku towards the central plaza.

As he closed in on the hand villain, he could see the students panicking and Tokoyami's dark shadow wasn't extending fast enough. Izuku clicked his tongue 'They must still be scared since they took out Mr. Aizawa.' Izuku flared forward with matoi in hand and then leaped at the hand villain. Igniting his hand, he could only think of one option. 'Iai Chop, Form One: Fire Moon.' Izuku burst down and his momentum stopped suddenly. The smoke from his attack began to clear and Izuku's hand was shaking a bit from pain. Looking forward, he could see nothing but the creature dead in front of him. The hand villain was sitting directly behind him grinning at him.

"You guys go around us and grab Mr. Aizawa. I'll finish up here and we'll get out of here." Tokoyami and Asui seemed to be the first two shaken out of their stupor and started moving a bit away from the fight. The hand villain smiled evilly

"And what makes you think, I'll just let those brats walk away. They're the future of this corrupt hero society anyways." It was at that point that Izuku glanced up prompting the villain to do the same. The four of the matoi from before were circling directly above them. The hand villain looked towards the group of students who had just arrived at Mr. Aizawa, only to find another matoi floating behind them. The villain glared back at Izuku who wasn't shaken.

"So, who are you, and what's your goal?" Izuku asked.

The villain met Izuku's eyes before responding. "We're the League of Villains, and we're here to kill the Symbol of Peace and put an end to this corrupt heroic society. I am Shigaraki Tomura and this is my anti-symbol of peace, Nomu." At the mention of its name, the creature seemed to perk up somewhat.

"Don't move!" Izuku tried to warn, but the villain was already giving his command.

"Nomu, kill the brat." As the Nomu made a move downward, Izuku brought three of the matoi down on top of the two villains before letting the fourth carry him a bit away from the explosion. Looking back as the smoke cleared, all he could see was the Nomu standing unharmed covering Shigaraki. Izuku looked at them before checking on his classmates. They had made it back up to the stairs towards the main plaza with Aizawa. And if he could hear correctly, he could hear explosions and ice moving in the distance starting to close in, and grinned. Recalling his matoi from the group, Izuku spun before flinging the one that had carried him away dead at the Nomu and the area exploded into fire.

"Yes, Young Mirio's training is progressing well with One for All though he appears to be having some trouble mixing it with his natural quirk." All Might states as he and principal Nedzu sat across from each other. Technically All Might was supposed to be at the USJ at this exact moment but given his time limit Nedzu assured him that it would be ok to skip today's lesson.

As All Might and Nedzu continued to talk suddenly Nedzu put down his tea. He began typing quickly at the computer on his desk. Nedzu didn't seem panicked, but the behavior was unusual for the hero. Though All Might had never truly understood him, he had never seen him so frazzled especially while he had been teaching at UA. Suddenly Nedzu spoke to him, "It appears as though Iida has returned from the USJ." All Might looked at the principal trying to understand why he wanted to talk to the Young Iida so badly before the principal continued. "Its just Iida that's back and he came on foot looking very frantic. I'm sending one of the others to see what's happened. I have a bad feeling this connects to the incident yesterday."

Toshinori hoped that everything was ok at the USJ, and this was just more of Aizawa's unconventional training methods. If it wasn't, then he paled to think of an incident that would have a single student return from a planned trip. Especially one that two pro heroes attended.


	11. Chapter 11

As Bakugo made his way back to the center plaza with the red head extra that he had found, he was suddenly hit by a violent rise in temperature and an explosion ahead of him. Racing forward, they were met with the sight of their green-haired classmate flying out of a large smokestack in the center holding onto some kind of stick. Bakugo's memory supplied that it was a matoi used by traditional firemen. Looking back towards the smoke, Bakugo could see the hand villain and the large creature from earlier standing unharmed.

Izuku landed and slid back a bit letting his left hand drag along the ground as his right hand gripped his matoi better. Igniting his left hand and creating a line of fire straight back towards the villains, Izuku spun and flung the matoi forward while increasing its velocity with the trail of flames he left earlier. A larger scale of the trick he used on Mr. Aizawa's test. With the added velocity, the matoi flew forward and made an even larger explosion than the previous ones had combined. He then recalled all the matoi and had them at the ready behind him.

The Nomu, as it was called, marched out of the smokestack still looking unharmed, and the hand villain was also protected from behind it. Izuku sighed as he stared at the Nomu not having a single injury. Unfortunately, normal means of taking it down wouldn't be a viable option. 'In retrospect trying to beat an anti-All Might with that half assed attack wasn't the smartest.' As Izuku lowered his center to prepare for combat, the Nomu raced forward at a blinding speed and was in front of him in an instant. Izuku lit his hands and feet and flew up letting all the matoi hit the Nomu in its chest after it missed the attack. And with that, Izuku hovered for a moment and tried to gather his thoughts.

'It's incredibly fast, and strong, resilient too; this won't be easy by any means' with that in mind, Izuku dodged a large rock that the Nomu threw at him to try and bring him to the ground and used his matoi to bat the rock back at it. Thinking quickly, Izuku flew low and gathered his flames. 'Iai Chop, Form One: Fire Moon'. The Nomu seemed to be paralyzed for a moment by the attack, before its eyes landed on Izuku and it tried to grab him. Thinking quickly, Izuku ignited his body and created flaming arms to grab the Nomu and flung it away.

"That was a bit close wasn't it hero?" the hand villain, Shigaraki, said in a mocking tone. Izuku used his voice to distinguish where his location. However, he refused to take his eyes off of the direction he sent the Nomu flying since it was definitely the larger threat between the two. It was good that he had too since the Nomu came forward and attempted to blow him away with a punch, which was only blocked by the matoi he had positioned in front of him. The wind pressure still put out the traces of flames behind him.

Izuku put up a wall of flames to try and create some distance between himself and the Nomu, but it broke straight through in an attempt to grab Izuku. Ducking under its arms, Izuku focused his flames and the matoi and brought them forward together with a flaming fist that seemed to push the Nomu back slightly. With that he gained as much distance as he could before an idea hit Izuku.

He started filling the portion of the main plaza he was in with flames. Not covering it but making flaming balls in various positions that would completely surround the Nomu. With that, he sent his matoi flying. Seeing an opportunity to finish its task, the Nomu raced forward only to be hit in the side of the face and before it could see what had hit it, it was hit again in the back and then the legs. The assault began to increase in speed as the matoi accelerated around and struck from multiple angles forcing the Nomu to maintain its position.

Shigaraki was scratching his neck a bit. Though the Nomu that his master had provided him couldn't be beat in such a brute force method, it could be stalled by restricting its movements. 'It won't be long before the pros are here! All because Kurogiri can't take care of some- 'Shigaraki cut his thoughts as soon as he thought of the mist villain and thought of a plan to get rid of the brat in front of him. "Kurogiri! Move the Nomu!" The mist didn't need to be told twice and immediately opened a warp gate that encompassed the Nomu. And suddenly it was behind Izuku. Some of his classmates looked on in horror as the creature came out of the gate behind him and reached for his head seemingly ready to crush it to bits.

Izuku could feel the creature behind him. Though it didn't feel similar to any of the people he had fought so far, he could still feel the intent to kill directly behind him. But with the matoi constantly increasing in velocity, even the creature wouldn't be able to react to his next move. Four of the five matoi caught the creature on each of its limbs carrying it into the air. The fifth Izuku stepped on as it started to pass letting it carry him into the air. Izuku crossed his arm over his shoulder. 'Iai Chop, Form Seven: Sun Wheel' Izuku collided with the Nomu in the air and let his hand collide with its exposed midsection. As the smoke cleared, Izuku saw something he could have never imagined. A deep burn that seemed to have cauterized instantly not allowing the Nomu to heal.

As he was taking in his accomplishment, however, the Nomu swatted him to the ground viciously. Izuku hit the ground and slid into the stair leaving a deep indent and its own cloud of smoke. The Nomu landed back to the earth. As it did, Izuku emerged from his own hole looking angry. Adjusting his costume and putting his arms fully through the fireman coat Izuku prepared to rush forward again before a loud sound came from the entrance. The entire USJ froze as they looked at who was entering.

"It's fine now. I am here!" A familiar deep voice declared as the smoke started to clear. Some of the class burst into tears seeing the number one hero break the door down to come to their rescue. Izuku himself could only stare as All Might rushed forward and secured the rest of his classmates before depositing them at the stairs near Izuku. The Nomu seemed to not be moving at all, conflicted on which target to attack between, Izuku and All Might. All Izuku could focus on though was the furious image of All Might.

All Might then charged the Nomu and chopped it creating a ton of wind pressure. The Nomu had made its decision with that action and engaged All Might, seemingly attempting to wrap up the number one hero before it was punched in the face twice. Izuku decided he had enough of watching and started directing some of his classmates up to the entrance where the rest of the class was waiting while All Might and the Nomu clashed.

Some of the villains saw this as their opportunity and tried to surround the class, but before anyone could act, Izuku stomped his foot against the ground and the villains all dropped to the floor in pain. Some of his classmates looked on worriedly. "Don't look so nervous, it's just heated air." Izuku explained.

With their path cleared, the less combative of the class made their way up to the entrance where the rest of their classmates were waiting. Izuku was about to suggest the rest of the class retreat when he saw All Might grab the Nomu and attempt to slam it into the ground. When the dust settled, the class saw All Might being held by the Nomu who had been sent through a warp gate to grab him, and he was struggling to free himself. Before the villains could close in, however, Todoroki froze the Nomu so All Might could escape its grip.

Simultaneously as All Might leapt back, Bakugo found the mist villain that had separated them and insulted him earlier and pinned him to the ground. "If you try and use your quirk, I'll blow you to bits," Bakugo threatened, a menacing grin on his face. Shigaraki seemed to be scratching again, frustrated at the students freeing All Might and capturing Kurogiri, but that was nothing Nomu couldn't fix.

Looking back the Nomu had already reformed from where it had broken off part of itself and was waiting for its order.

"Nomu, get Kurogiri back from the blonde." The Nomu shot forward and as All Might came to intercept it, he found the Nomu being held in place by flaming arms extended from Izuku. Glowing blue and green met, and All Might knew he owed it to his students to finish this off. As the number one hero and their teacher, he had to stand strong. All Might raced forward and clashed with the Nomu again. The melee they created turned into a furious clash and some of the students were blown back.

Slowly All Might began to overpower the Nomu before he finally sent the Nomu flying outside of the USJ. Izuku looked on impressed at All Might's strength, something he had never seen firsthand. All Might then turned on the villains and challenged them to retreat or be captured. Which seemed odd to Izuku, as mad as he looked why would All Might give them the option to leave. The villains, however, didn't think as hard and rushed All Might to try and kill him and finish their mission. Izuku came forward quickly in order to intercept the hand villain. Izuku's flames concentrated into a circle and the hand villain could notice scars that he hadn't seen before slowly becoming more prominent before a gunshot rang out from the entrance. Izuku exhaled as he saw Shigaraki and Kurogiri start to pull back.

Izuku looked to the entrance and saw a many of his teachers had arrived. And the teachers made quick work of the remaining villains that were making their way to the plaza. Shigaraki and Kurogiri were forced to retreat as Snipe had landed a bullet in almost every one of his limbs and suddenly the USJ incident began to wrap itself up. The police and emergency services arrived to begin apprehending the villains and tending to wound respectively. As Izuku tried to approach All Might and check on him, he was suddenly interrupted by a cement wall shooting up between the two.

Then Izuku felt an arm tap on his shoulder pointing him towards the paramedics that were checking on the rest of his class. He couldn't find it in himself to refuse, so Izuku made his way up the stairs as the police made their way down and began apprehending villains all throughout the USJ. Izuku came to the top of the stairs and could see ambulances loading up Mr. Aizawa and Thirteen, but none of his classmates seem to have been as injured as any of the heroes, thankfully.

Izuku looked around and saw Iida who he remembered had raced out to retrieve the pros and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Good job, Iida, you really saved us there with all your hard work."

"Thank you, Midoriya!" Iida yelled beaming at the praise from one of the top students in the class. Having said his piece, Izuku made his way over to a paramedic so that he could get checked out. He hadn't felt like he took much damage, but apparently that was all adrenaline as the last blow by the Nomu had managed to fracture bones in his arms and ribs, and even a bit of blood running down his head. He sighed as the paramedic got to work and let his mind wander. So many things weren't adding up from All Might's late appearance, to not being able to see him, to All Might willfully letting the villains escape despite being the number one hero.

There was a lot going on and he needed to get answers otherwise he would never be able to let this go.


	12. Chapter 12

Today had been a long day. If Izuku took a poll, he would bet his whole class would agree without hesitation; but even with the villains dealt with, it still didn't seem to be over and the entire class was currently at the police station giving statements. Since the class hadn't suffered any major injuries they were transported, told to give their statements, and then released into the care of a guardian to be taken home. Which would have been perfectly acceptable except for the fact that they were isolating Izuku from the rest of his class. It started with the ride over as he was escorted in a different vehicle from his class, but now it seems as though the police were proactively trying to keep him here and away from everyone.

The room itself didn't consist of much. It was a plain room with a single entrance that had a small square glass opening that one could see through. The inside of the room was just as uninteresting. It had a table in the middle of the room along with two chairs, one on each side of the table. As well as a light in the middle of the table.

It was suspicious. Especially, since a different face came to check on him every few minutes. It was like a game at this point trying to find out how many different police officers he would see before he was finally called back to be questioned. He hadn't had his phone when they went into the USJ either and at this point there were very few distractions that he could find. Similarly, Izuku's classmates also found the ordeal to be odd.

"Why can't Midoriya be in here with the rest of us?" Yaoyorozu asked yet again on behalf of the class. It was a given that she would ask due to the fact that she was the classes' Vice Rep, but at this point it was concerning and the answer seemed more automated than anything.

"Again, his injuries were slightly more severe than the rest of the class, therefore we are allowing him to rest in an empty room as to not exacerbate his injuries." Yaoyorozu sighed as she relayed the information to the class again. Despite the fact that at least half the class had already been questioned and allowed to leave, Izuku was still not allowed to join them in their room. This made the entire class uneasy. The police still continued to call them in one by one and take their statements though as if ignoring the situation would make the class less likely to ask again.

Even so, the station eventually finished getting all the students taken care of and into the custody of their families which left only one person left to be questioned. As Izuku was starting to doze off after the hours of sitting alone, he was awoken by a plain looking man entering his little waiting room along with another officer and-

"Mr. Aizawa, you're ok!" Izuku exclaimed excited to see his teacher still in one piece. He was a little more banged up than Izuku overall, but not much worse for wear. Mr. Aizawa sighed.

"Ok problem child, what have you gotten yourself into." Izuku looked confused before the plain looking detective sat down in front of him. He didn't bring any kind of technology with him that would indicate an investigation.

"Hello Mr. Midoriya, I am Detective Tsukauchi and my quirk is Lie Detector; I can determine if anything said to me is a lie or the truth." The detective opened.

"Hm, that's really interesting" Izuku entertained, but he had a hunch where this was going.

"It took me a minute to get the information from your classmates and some of the villains, but what do you know about someone named the 'Demolition King?" Izuku's posture didn't change as he took in the information, but before he could respond the detective continued. "And why do your classmates believe you were specifically isolated by the villains before the rest of the class was transported?"

"This doesn't seem like the type of questioning you can just ask me especially without some kind of lawyer present." Izuku replied, but that was apparently the wrong response. The detective seemed to close his eyes for a moment before he started listing off some of the legal codes that Izuku may have violated.

"For all intents and purposes, you are a vigilante operating outside of the law, and with the evidence that we have, we could very easily put you away for a long time. Once we get the statements from the Asakusa police department, you'll be officially removed from the hero course and transferred to a maximum-security prison." At this point even Mr. Aizawa seemed taken aback by the direction this was taking, obviously he hadn't been informed of the whole situation.

At this point Izuku was accepting that this was the end of his hero career. He would be marked for his entire life, if they ever let him out of prison, for this. Either way he accepted the consequences, and if he had to do it all again then he would because everyone he helped made it feel like something so much greater than what the law called it. And doing the right thing was enough even if it came back to bite him in the ass.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and the interrogation was interrupted. An officer walked in followed by what might as well have been two glowing beacons. Izuku's mother and Benimaru walked into the room. It had taken forever for them to get here, but better late than never in Izuku's books. His mom came straight across the room to embrace him while Benimaru and the detective stepped into another room.

Despite how old he had gotten; it was always hard not to cry when his mom cried. She hugged hm so tight that he swore she would squeeze the life out of him, but it was also nice especially after the day he had. His mom checked him over once before wiping her tears and rounding on Mr. Aizawa like a mother bear. Before she could tear into him though, Izuku put his hand on her shoulder to grab her attention and softly shook his head 'no'.

"This is my homeroom teacher and trust me he's had a rough day today he doesn't need anything else on top of that. Besides he literally flung himself at villains to try and save us." Izuku's mother mulled over the information before nodding to herself and walking straight up to Mr. Aizawa.

"Thank you for trying to protect my son." Inko said as she bowed in front of Aizawa. Izuku smiled softly at his mom's antics.

"You shouldn't give me too much credit. Honestly if it wasn't for your son there probably would have been several casualties from what I heard from the some of the students." Aizawa glared in Izuku's direction, but Izuku didn't think much of it. Honestly, he was just ready to get away from this whole situation. Conveniently enough the detective and Benimaru returned to the room not long after. The detective looked frustrated, but eventually he seemed to lose the emotion before addressing the room.

"Due to insufficient evidence, this police department will be releasing you after we get a statement of your interactions on the USJ incident, understood." Izuku could barely contain his smile.

"Yes sir!"

Eventually Izuku finished up and he, his mother, and Benimaru all made their way back to the train station to catch a late train back to Asakusa. His mother seemed to immediately collapse as the stress left her body and that left Izuku and Benimaru to chat on the ride back.

"So, how did you get the police station to drop the charges? It seemed like that detective was eager to put me away for a long time." Izuku started.

"It wasn't easy, but basically I told him that if this went to any kind of high-level, no citizen in Asakusa knows anything about your vigilante work. Basically, if he took it to court it would be villains you had already put away testifying against police officers and citizens." Benimaru replied.

"And that detective just accepted that?" Izuku questioned.

"No, but I then told him about how until this past summer Asakusa operated as an independent emergency services, and because of that the rules were slightly different and outside of his jurisdiction. Normally, you would have gone straight to jail, but because of the fact that before recently we didn't have any real government funding or heroes there was no one to answer to and the case falls outside of his jurisdiction completely."

Izuku stared with his mouth agape before he burst into laughter. It was hard to imagine that Benimaru had actually done some research, he never seemed like the type. He smiled as he thought back to all the hours, he spent working on the things Benimaru taught him. From simple things like how to throw a punch to concentrating and attacking with his quirk. It was such an amazing time, but it seemed so distant now.

"You know, Beni, it really brings me back, you and me laughing like this. The only thing missing is Maki and the old gang would be back together." Izuku was smiling, but Benimaru seemed to pale at the mention of his daughter. They had ridden together to campus, but it didn't feel quite right then. Thinking back, Izuku could barely remember how many times he had seen her since he stopped coming from training daily.

"If UA still holds their annual sports festival after this," Benimaru began, "you should absolutely be warry of Maki." Izuku paled thinking back to his numerous fights with Maki growing up. Not a single victory to his name yet. Even to this day, she was definitely his toughest opponent.

'Thanks for the advice, Beni." His former teacher sighed at the nickname, never really liking it personally, but always answering regardless. That marked the end of the conversation and Izuku let his mind wander. Thinking back to his fight today with the Nomu it was definitely sloppy in comparison. There were so many simple errors that flooded Izuku's mind and in retrospect there were so many options that he hadn't even explored yet.

The first issue he would have to address before anything was a talk with Mr. Aizawa and the principal. After that he could worry about fixing some of the holes he had noticed. First thing was changing his costume to be less revealing. Though it was good for his flames, if there was another way to manage them, he could easily begin working with a different fighting style. Had the Shigaraki or the Nomu been faster they could have easily taken advantage of Izuku's lack of covering and taken a leg. The thought alone was enough to make Izuku sick to his stomach.

He let his mind wander more as the city came into view. It wasn't the brightest, but the people there shined all the same. And as much as he regretted his actions growing up, he was also thankful. The possibility of meeting them only came to the table because of the way things were before he moved there. Izuku loved this city with all his heart and one day when he was a real pro, he would give everything back to the place that raised him.

The train came to a stop and Izuku's mother was fast asleep. He couldn't bring himself to wake her, so he carried her in his arms all the way home. She deserved a little rest after everything that had happened today, they both did. Izuku decided that once he got home, he would use the time off to let his injuries heal and avoid training as much as he usually did. Nothing extreme just a bit of work on controlling his quirk better at most. But that was a thought for another day. Izuku, for now, wanted to put this whole experience behind him and continue on his path to becoming a real hero.


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning Izuku awoke to the smell of breakfast filling the house and his mom humming in the kitchen. He also awoke to a good portion of his body feeling sore from the fight with the Nomu. Grabbing a change of clothes and heading to the bathroom, Izuku took a quick shower before meeting his mom for breakfast. She seemed so vibrant compared to when he last saw her, she must have missed him. He sat down at the table right as his mother finished up.

"I know you normally have so much going on, but I thought after yesterday and before you head back, we could just have a nice quiet breakfast together." Inko said after finally setting her own place at the table and taking a seat. It was a quiet affair, but it was nice to talk to his mom in person. Sitting there and enjoying her company like when he was younger. They went across topics from his school, to his teachers, and his classmates. Inko seemed to absorb every bit of information and hold onto it. Eventually, though, Inko had to go to work and Izuku needed to get his day started as well.

"Have a great day!" Izuku yelled as his mom was first to leave their house. Checking himself for his phone and his keys, he made his way out a bit later and headed to a familiar spot. To not open up any of his injuries Izuku walked calmly through the streets towards his destination taking in the sights. Food stalls and houses that he had passed a million times but never really looked at. Faces that were familiar for one reason or another. But ultimately today was taking another step forward.

The building came into view and the heat could be felt from where Izuku stood. Izuku pushed the door open to find Benimaru training along with some of the volunteer emergency services and even a couple of the pro heroes that had taken to patrolling the city. Benimaru excused himself as they continued to practice. He sat on the front steps patting the ground for Izuku to join him.

"So, what brings you here?" Benimaru asked as he took a sip of water. Izuku pondered for a second before he replied.

"Honestly, I need to get more technical skills. I have the power, but my own fighting style leaves too many holes that I can't manage at the moment." Izuku admitted. His fighting style had been limited to kicking or punching. There was really no combination between the two. It probably came from the lack of needing to fight, but from here on opponents would only be getting stronger.

"My class needs a demonstration anyways." A wicked grin crossed Benimaru's face, "Come, show me what you've learned since you left." Izuku stood and walked inside taking off his shoes as he walked into the building. The class had already been told by Benimaru and cleared to the edges of the building leaving the entire center for Benimaru and Izuku to face off.

Izuku and Benimaru slipped into similar stances and stared off at each other. "We'll go until one of us lands a single clean hit which that will decide the match. We'll start on your mark- "Izuku shot forward letting his flames propel him before they were extinguished. Benimaru was already moving to intercept Izuku. Reacting swiftly seeing Benimaru prepare his signature move, Izuku shot flames from his foot to adjust his position and slammed his leg down to prevent Benimaru's chop. They landed and repositioned squaring off again.

The crowd was captivated by the quick footwork and the seemingly complimentary quirks facing off against each other. And though Benimaru seemed to have the upper hand in combat experience, Izuku was definitely moving well to counteract. Benimaru slid forward letting flames cover his body and path; and by the time Izuku could erase his flames Benimaru was in his face with a fist raised and only quick reflexes prevented it from landing cleanly.

"We'll call that match. You're definitely slow today because of those injuries. And you're not using your abilities to their full potential, as for the technical aspect it seems to be more of a lack of practice rather than aptitude. You're not some genius that can see things once and adjust to them, but you work hard and adjust and learn and that's its own strength. To sum it up, you just have to fight stronger and work on it more." Izuku limped over already feeling the effects of fighting starting to catch up with him. Benimaru directed his class to begin sparring while he finished up with Izuku.

They sat at the front of the class as the class broke into pairs and began their sparring. "The only way to perfect this is through fighting, but don't make it unnatural. Build on your own fighting style and close the gaps in that moving forward." Benimaru said before he stood up to begin checking on the groups. Benimaru looked over his shoulder back at Izuku and could hardly recognize him. Though he was the same in name, he had grown greatly. Both in height and as a person.

"Thanks, Beni." Izuku said as he waved and exited the building. It had been a while since his last visit, but the place had hardly changed and Benimaru never treated him differently despite it. A soft smile adorned Izuku's face as he made his way out and through the city, back towards his house. A few painkillers and he would work on a bit of quirk control and his mother should be back a bit later.

Showering and heading to the kitchen after training, Izuku started getting some ingredients ready for dinner. Since this was going to be his last night here, the least he could do was surprise his mom with a meal. Looking through the fridge, Izuku quickly decided and prepped the food and ingredients. That night he and his mother had a nice quiet dinner and just enjoyed her company one last time before he had to go back to UA.

That night Izuku could only imagine how worried some of his classmates had to be that he hadn't contacted them since the USJ. Unfortunately, he hadn't exchanged numbers with anyone just yet. Despite a good bit of his improvements, he still had some trouble with social interactions. But that was a problem for future Izuku when he got back to campus. For tonight Izuku could simply rest and recuperate.

Early the next morning, Izuku showered, dressed and was gone by the time the sun rose leaving a simple note on the fridge for his mother. The early sun's rays slid through the window as the scenery rushed by as the train carried Izuku back to UA. He had to meet with Principal Nedzu and Mr. Aizawa today, which was already going to be a stressful meeting. Deciding to not worry too much about it, Izuku relaxed and let his surroundings distract him as he waited for the train to arrive at his destination.

The gates of UA looked as imposing as when Izuku first arrived. As he walked in, Mr. Aizawa made it to the gates and guided him towards the principal's office. They walked swiftly and his teacher didn't say a single word to him even as they stepped into the office. The principal spun around in his chair with a tea kettle in hand. "Mr. Midoriya thank you for meeting us this early in the morning. We have much to discuss, would you like some tea?"

Izuku nodded and accepted the tea as the principal pulled out a few files and sipped through his own tea. "So, given the current circumstances I know you understand that the school knows of your vigilante work, correct?" Izuku stared forward and nodded understanding that the principal had more to say. "Normally these events coming to light would call for immediate expulsion but considering how they turned more into a community service project UA is willing to completely ignore this situation."

Izuku almost fell out of his chair at the revelation. He had hoped for some leniency in his punishment but getting off completely unscathed sounded too good to be true. "Don't be mistaken, this is simply our way of making amends for our own failures. Had the USJ incident never occurred the staff wouldn't have found out by normal means. And us not finding this information put you and the other students in greater danger." Mr. Aizawa chimed in. "That being said don't make this a habit because you'll run out of protection eventually."

As Principal Nedzu and Mr. Aizawa finished their deliberations, Izuku found himself being led to the nurse's office. Mr. Aizawa and the principal had somehow noticed he was favoring a side and were going to fill out the paperwork after providing a final warning about his vigilantism. And that's where Izuku was now, sitting in the nurse's office waiting for the nurse. 'Recovery Girl used to be the nurse if I remember right, but she'd be well past retirement at this point, so I wonder who they have- '

"Hello, young man, what brings you here today?" An extremely short old lady walked in with a cane and a large syringe in her hair. Izuku stared at the old moment before he realized that this was the hero he was just remembering.

"Ah, you're Recovery Girl. I'm Izuku Midoriya from 1-A, I'm here because I have lingering injuries from the USJ." Recovery Girl took the information and began poking and prodding along Izuku's body to get an idea of his injuries. She took notice of the many bandages that covered his body.

"Are these all from your injuries from the attack the other day?" Izuku shook his head no and Recovery Girl continued her prodding before turning around and writing something on a clipboard. She then turned and whacked Izuku in the leg with her cane. "I'll heal you up, but don't make a habit of ignoring your injuries because you think it makes you tough, it won't make you last longer."

"I understand." Seemingly satisfied Recovery Girl's lips extended and Izuku suddenly felt like most of his energy was sapped from his body. His eyes were heavy, and he suddenly felt them close and when he opened them again the sun was much lower in the sky seemingly in the afternoon.

"You must have had a lot of lingering injuries to just fall asleep like that. You should be all healed up now but take it easy the rest of today." Izuku nodded lazily and checked his pockets before making his way through the halls of UA. Checking his phone, it was almost eight hours since he originally arrived on campus. Another thing Izuku immediately noticed was that beyond his injuries some of the usual stiffness in his body was also gone. If it wasn't for Recovery Girl's orders, he might have to test it out. But he was already in view of the dorms and there was still some lingering tiredness from Recovery Girl's treatment.

Izuku opened the door to the dorms and several of his classmates rounded on him. Some ran forward and jumped in his face while others gave him gentle nods of acknowledgment. "Midoriya, it's good to see you in such good health," Iida said as he chopped his arm in his usual fashion. Iida didn't look much worse since the USJ, but some of his classmates were sporting dark circles under their eyes. The entire incident obviously hit some of the class harder and that was troublesome.

Pulling Iida aside, Izuku decided on the course of action that he should take going forward. "Iida can you go get everyone who is currently in the dorms down here for a class meeting if you don't mind." Iida seemed to straighten being given a mission and speed walked off and up into the dorms while Izuku sat down on one of the couches. A few minutes later groups started coming down into the dorms in bunches. And while they were in their own small groups and conversed for a moment Izuku eventually found the room to be filled with the class. Even though some of the less social of the class stood on the stairs and watched.

"Alright everyone can I have your attention!" The class immediately quieted down and clearing his throat Izuku began. "I know we're all sort of shaken up after the incident a few days ago so I think we need to clear the air. We were attacked by villains, and it was scary. And I know it didn't feel very hopeful and some of you might still be hurt by the incident. That's why I would like to strongly advise that if you need to go visit the counselor on campus, Hound Dog, in the counseling offices. I'll be making an appointment personally and I encourage everyone to do so. We're still students, this was not something that we were prepared for and I think you shouldn't think this is the norm because this is a hero school. And even if you can't bring yourself to go to a counselor make sure to talk to someone about this."

Some of the class seemed to let the comments Izuku made brush right off, but others, some of the one's that Izuku could tell had been fighting for days seemed relieved. "Even if we haven't been classmates for long, that doesn't mean we can't take care of each other. Thank you for your time." With that Izuku bowed at a perfect angle and excused himself to his room. Some of the class seemed shocked to watch Izuku walk up the stairs and towards his dorm. And though the class had not yet fully recovered, the gesture and the return of their injured classmate helped bolster the room.

That night Izuku went up to the roof and sat for a bit. Looking out over the campus he could already see some of the changes the school was making to improve security. Overall, there wasn't much he could do for everyone, but he could at least try and be a strong enough leader for his class to lean on when they needed it. Later when Izuku returned to his room, he found a couple of small notes under his door thanking him for what he said in the commons room. And that was reason enough to say it if a couple of his classmates could benefit from it that was enough.


	14. Chapter 14

The classroom was bustling with noise the next day. Much of the classroom was still wondering if Mr. Aizawa was going to be teaching today due to his injuries. Izuku was more focused on how to improve since the USJ incident. Suddenly the door to the classroom burst open and a mummy entered.

"That's so manly! Coming into class even though you're that injured." Kirishima beamed. Izuku was wondering if something else had happened because at the police station and even yesterday in his meeting with the principal his teacher hadn't been wrapped up that bad. As if reading his mind, Mr. Aizawa answered.

"My injuries are nowhere near bad enough to keep me away from class, the bandages are just Mic overreacting." With that Mr. Aizawa took his place at the front of the classroom. "And your fight isn't over yet." The class tensed not knowing what to expect. Mineta, voicing the majority of the classes worries, was muttering about another villain attack. "Nothing like that." Mr. Aizawa explained. "The annual UA sports festival will be coming up soon." That comment drew a split reaction from the class. Some of the class, like Kirishima, was excited for the sports festival while the rest of the class had their doubts.

"Should we really hold a sports festival so soon after getting attacked by villains?"

"Is a sports festival even that important?"

But Mr. Aizawa had an explanation. "The administration has told me that we're moving forward with the sports festival to show that UA is undaunted by villains. And this is an unmissable opportunity for you all to show your skills to pros. One chance a year, three chances in a lifetime, so you can't afford to fail or not give it your best. With that said, classes will still be held, but the training facilities will be open to use when necessary."

Finished with announcements, Mr. Aizawa waddled out of the room and down the hallways. The class was once again left to their own devices. And so, the school day went on until lunch. As the class was packing up, Izuku took notice of Uramaki who seemed to be completely pumped up. The entire class began to notice her energy and it served to further pump them up as the class began excitedly talking about the upcoming sports festival. As they started getting closer to the lunchroom, Izuku noticed All Might and another blonde student making their way off with their lunches, but he paid it no mind. For now, he had to focus on the sports festival.

The energy and excitement seemed to be filling much of the class and the rest of the day flew by in an instant. Though the class wanted to quickly exit and start getting ready for the sports festival, they found their way blocked by a huge group of students. Most of the class was confused and Mineta was the first one to voice his confusion. "What do you think they're here for?"

"Remember what Mr. Aizawa said this morning about the upcoming sports festival? They're all here to see the competition for themselves since we're the ones who survived a villain attack," Bakugo began. "You've seen us. Now move it, extras." Some of the students started backing up, but it seemed one head started moving through the crowd towards them.

"It seems I was right about the hero course being filled with a bunch of egotistical brats. You're right we're here to scout out the competition, but none of you look like much. You all probably didn't even get attacked, you just sat back while the teachers handl-"The student in question had made it to the front of the crowd at some point during his speech and Izuku had enough. The temperature in the classroom and hallway rose as purple orbs met glowing emerald.

"Listen, if all you wanted was to see us, you've had your look. If you want a demonstration though," Izuku and the student were face to face at this point. "I'll fucking flatten you." The student tensed but took a step back and smiled.

"Being as you guys are in the hero course I don't know if they've told you, but some of us in general studies also applied for the hero course but were rejected. The sports festival is our time to get noticed and make our way into the hero course if we choose to step up and perform. Those of you who don't risk being dropped down to general studies." He looked over all of 1-A before he made his announcement. "I'm Shinso Hitoshi and this isn't a challenge, it's a declaration of war." With that, Shinso wandered off into the class and disappeared. Eventually, the halls and class returned to a normal temperature as well. Izuku sighed before gathering the books he had left on his desk and made his way out followed by Iida and Uraraka.

"That was very unbecoming of a class-rep Midoriya, in the future you shouldn't let other students in UA provoke you like that." Iida said. Izuku heard Uraraka mutter something about a fated battle, but all Izuku could imagine was that Shinso guy.

"That guy insulted our class, as class-rep I felt it was my job to stand up to him. That was it really." Iida seemed to accept that answer, but Izuku hoped he'd get the chance to fight that guy one on one. "Ah, I almost forgot I have some business with the support department, so I won't be walking back to the dorms with you guys." With that Izuku gave a wave and parted from his small group. He headed towards the support labs to get top work on the gaps he found in his hero costume and support items. As he approached the door it suddenly exploded and the only thing Izuku could use to catch it was the flaming arms from his quirk. Throwing the door to the side, Izuku ran in and heard the voice of Powerloader yelling.

"Dammit, Hatsume, I thought I told you to dial back on the fuel for that thing." A maniacal laughter was the only response before dirty pink dreadlocks sprang from the smoke.

"My baby was almost a complete success! Did you see that!?"

Izuku was taken aback by the dynamic between the two before Powerloader came up to him directly. "Sorry, you're Midoriya from the hero course, right? You wanted to talk about some costume upgrades, right?" Izuku shook his head to refocus before he nodded and got his costume from his case and spread it out on one of the available tables.

"Yes, we were attacked at the USJ, and there were some issues that I noticed with my costume as well as some things that I would like to add." Powerloader nodded and signaled For Izuku to continue. "The first issue is the amount of exposed skin at my feet. Is there a way to cover my feet and still allow my flames to flow? I also wanted to add some weapons into the fire coat. Considering it already has metal, some small weapons shouldn't add too much more weight."

Powerloader sat for a second pondering the request before the pink gremlin reappeared with a needle in hand. "For the first request, we could always take a sample of his blood and make the material with that." Izuku was about to retreat before Powerloader caught the girl and pondered on the idea.

"It's true for several students we use that sort of idea to allow them to use their quirks at their full potential while also having a costume that does not hinder them. What about the weapons? What were you thinking?" Izuku pondered for a minute and his mind's eye was consumed by the creature that he fought.

"I need something like a collapsible Matoi. I also need something that can compress my flames and make them more volatile both up close and at a range." The girl slipped from Powerloader's grasp and was suddenly in front of Izuku again.

"I like what you're thinking. Let me be your official tech support and I promise you'll only get the best from me, green. I'm Mei Hatsume, genius inventor. With my babies, you'll be the best equipped hero out there." The girl said with an almost feral grin and her arm extended. Izuku grabbed the extended arm with an equally feral grin.

"Got it, Hatsume, I'm Midoriya Izuku, looking forward to working with you!" Powerloader could only stare in horror as the two got to work on the other side of the room. Izuku began to explain his quirk and how it worked to Hatsume while she listened aptly and started putting in some of her own ideas. The scariest part about it was that even at the speed they were talking neither seemed lost in the conversation. Sighing, Powerloader decided to just let them work.

"It'll take at least a week for me to file the proper paperwork to get your costume request sent in and three days for me to get the stuff from Recovery Girl to get a sample of your blood. Is that all right?" Izuku nodded and Powerloader got to work getting some of the paperwork ready and sent to the appropriate locations before Hatsume pulled out another one of her babies. It was one that had already failed earlier this week and Powerloader paled as the upgraded model started making the same whirring sounds as the last. It started to glow, but before it could burst into flames and explode, it stopped.

Powerloader looked to the extended hand and saw glowing green eyes focused on the machine. "Sorry, it was about to explode so I put it out before it could. Both Powerloader and Hatsume were impressed by the speed and precision of his control, but for someone working with Hatsume this was a blessing he couldn't have imagined. He'd have to thank Eraser for sending this kid his way. And see if he couldn't push some of this paperwork through faster for his help.

Meanwhile the rest of the class was beginning to experiment in their own ways and plan out training. They began creating schedules for the next couple of weeks including figuring and reserving times for the use of certain training grounds on campus. The entire class knew that they had to perform at the sports festival and get noticed by as many pros as possible. For some that meant putting in more work that others, but ultimately two weeks would be no time at all to waste.

This train of thought was how Izuku found himself walking into the dorms with Uraraka, Iida, and Yaoyorozu waiting for him in the common rooms. Iida spoke up first, "We were all hoping to train with you Midoriya." Izuku thought about it for a moment. Training with them would probably be helpful, but there would also be limits to what they could all do together overall. He decided that it would be the most beneficial if they all trained together. That night, they worked out the details for the training. Specifically, the available training areas. Ultimately, they decided to use Gym Gamma for the majority of their training and Izuku emailed Mr. Aizawa to see if he could supervise their training. Finally finishing and saying goodnight to the others, Izuku headed to bed, ready for a new day.

The next day Izuku awoke to a response from his teacher. Mr. Aizawa replied that he would be ok to supervise their training at the times that they mentioned up until the sports festival unless he was needed on assignment. With that in tow, Izuku got ready and rushed downstairs to meet his classmates. They were already in the commons room and though they looked tired from the early rise, the fire in their eyes let Izuku know they were ready to work. Their training was roughly divided into three main portions. Morning physical training, after class sparring, and individual quirk work.

The group increased their training load each day slightly in order to improve as fast as possible and be prepared for the upcoming sports festival, and in Izuku's opinion it seemed to be going well. He could see solid improvements each day. And over the two-week period those improvements would definitely help in the sports festival.

There was one concerning thing, however, Izuku could tell that Yaoyorozu was still doubting herself in combat. Her need to react to foes rather than being proactive in battle and deciding the terms would ultimately hurt her. However, pointing out one of her flaws right now might hurt her more than help and make her regress even more. For now, at least Izuku would hope that he was wrong.

In the last few days before the sports festival. Mr. Aizawa informed Izuku that he had to have a speech prepared for the sports festival. And so, with that added responsibility, Izuku saw the remaining days before the sports festival disappear in an instant. And suddenly the day was upon them.


	15. Chapter 15

Class 1-A found themselves tense in in their waiting room anxiously waiting for their class to be called. They could only focus deeply on the sports festival that would have such huge ramifications on their futures. Suddenly Todoroki approached Izuku from across the room.

"Midoriya, it's clear from everything that's happened that your quirk has an advantage over mine, but I won't lose to you. I will overcome you with only my right side. And prove that I'm the strongest student at UA." The normally stoic Todoroki declared.

"Woah now man, I know it's a competition, but we're still friends." Kaminari interjected.

"I'm not here to make friends." Todoroki replied.

Izuku sighed as he looked over Todoroki. He could tell that he was trained well, but his fighting style was definitely hindered by only using half of his quirk. "I appreciate you picking me out as competition, but there's a ton of strong people in our class alone. Everyone's been working hard for this. Don't spit on their hard work by not acknowledging them." With that Izuku turned to talk to Iida and Uraraka and the rest of the class seemed relieved that they had not been forgotten.

Finally, they heard the announcement for their class to head out into the arena. "Alright, 1-A let's move out." As they came into view of the corridor, they could hear Present Mic announcing their class.

"And now for the first-year class that survived a villain attack, I introduce to you the infamous class 1-A," Present Mic screamed. As the class filled into the arena, Izuku could hear both Present Mic and the crowd get progressively less enthusiastic about the following classes. It was a pity because every single one of them had the talents to get into UA on their own merits among the thousands of applicants.

"And to referee for the first years will be our very own 18+ hero Midnight!"

"Hello everyone, I promise to keep things fair and youthful. And now to represent the students, Midoriya Izuku of class 1-A." Midnight declared.

Izuku started to make his way to the podium and as he did, he heard some of the other sections of students complaining that he was the one making the speech despite only being number one for the hero course. He sighed before he made it to the microphone and took a deep breath before speaking. "Every single person here today deserves to be here. They're all talented and worked hard to make it into UA," Izuku said. "Anybody who isn't willing to give their all in these events should accept they won't win it now."

Todoroki seemed to glare at Izuku's back the hardest with those words. "Now, let's PLUS ULTRA and enjoy this sports festival." The crowd resumed their erratic screeching while the students still seemed to want to alienate class 1-A.

"Now it's time for our first event, the obstacle race!" Midnight went over the rules as the students filled into the corridor. The objective of the race was simply to place as high as possible. Izuku spaced himself towards the side of the wall before the event started and prepared himself.

"AND START!" Present Mic screamed. The students that were participating in the event started filing out of the tunnel when suddenly the floor was covered in ice. This hindered some of the other classes that had not experienced that before, but most of 1-A easily avoided the attack and sprinted out into the first obstacle. Several of the robots and zero pointers from the entrance exam were blocking the way. This time both of the heroic's courses blasted through the obstacle as zero pointers came into view.

Bakugo blasted over to the head of the zero pointer before blasting it in its face, sending it careening towards the ground and opening a path for himself mid-air. Todoroki followed next, freezing the same falling zero pointer to create a path for himself. The other classes tried to follow after him on his icy path, but failed due to the precarious way that Todoroki froze the bot.

Izuku was entertained by his classmate's antics but seeing an opportunity, he also flew towards the zero pointer directly next to the one Bakugo and Todoroki had taken out. 'Might as well make a path to keep this interesting' Izuku thought to himself. Flying up, Izuku delivered a kick to the side of the robot's head and continued forward. The robot started falling to the side and Izuku let his momentum and gravity take hold. Suddenly the body of the zero pointer that Bakugo and Todoroki had dealt with came flying at him. Izuku saw a bit of steam coming from the direction before he was smashed between the two massive bots.

"And it seems Midoriya from class 1-A has 'bot' off more than he could chew!" Present Mic announced to the arena.

"Mic, I could punch you," Mr. Aizawa said from the announcer booth.

Meanwhile the rest of the students sprinted ahead towards the second obstacle. They approached a massive drop that only connected to the other side by a series of small rocks and ropes. The rest of the students begin to catch up to the remaining 1-A and 1-B class as they all come to a standstill at the beginning of the drop. There were some exceptions, however, as Bakugo was not affected in the slightest with Todoroki following close behind still.

Izuku, on the other hand, could no longer hear footsteps near him and decided that now was the time to make his move. Izuku let his flames fly freely, picking the robots up with the force of the fire and beginning to melt the skyscraper sized bots. "This is freaking awesome!" Izuku exclaimed as he burst forward leaving the zero pointers as nothing more than a melted together heap. Using his flames to shoot himself forward, he appeared back into view of his competition.

"Eraser, what the hell are you teaching these kids?!" Present Mic screamed once again.

"I didn't teach him that. He came broken," Aizawa lazily responded.

Izuku could see Todoroki and Bakugo beginning to fight more and more into the distance and took this opportunity to take account of everyone ahead of him. Though a majority of the competition was still trying to fight their way over the ropes, Izuku could see that they were on the latter half of the ropes; and soon they would all be approaching the final obstacle. Izuku grinned as he flew over the competition, setting his sights for the two in first place as he heard Present Mic come over the speakers again.

"And our competitors are coming up on their final obstacle. Make sure to watch your steps kids!" Present Mic yelled out.

"All the explosives have been reduced to the point that they won't do any permanent damage. Recovery Girl would never forgive us otherwise." Aizawa added.

Bakugo had landed and was carefully maneuvering through the field along with Todoroki. Though he hated to admit it he had overused his explosions for the first part of the events and would need at least a small break in order to give off any meaningful explosions. For the moment, hovering and flying were most likely off the table. Bakugo looked over, noticing that Todoroki was also struggling. Although in his case if he used his quirk, he would be making a path for the rest of his competition.

Izuku on the other hand was barreling forward. With a wicked grin on his face. He was flying so quickly that he had already passed most of the people between him, Bakugo and Todoroki and he was not slowing down.

"And Midoriya from Class 1-A has reentered the race full throttle heading dead for the lead!" Present Mic announced. This got Bakugo and Todoroki moving, and they abandoned any strategy of minimal use of their quirks in the minefield. Todoroki froze a path all the way to the finish and Bakugo followed closely behind using his explosions and skating to the end of the mines behind him. As soon as they hit solid ground again, they separated as Bakugo realized first place would not be possible while following Todoroki's path.

When they separated, they opened the perfect path and Izuku came right between the two of them. Todoroki and Bakugo both used their quirks to try and attack Izuku as he passed by, but Izuku had finally found his rhythm and flowed between both of their attacks before lashing out with his feet and flames and landing between them. Then all three were rushing into the tunnel and towards the finish line.

The whole stadium was on their feet as the three approached. They were all well aware that Todoroki was the son of the number two hero Endeavor, but both Bakugo and Izuku had not only held their own but proved that this was not a one-horse race in the sports festival. As all three continued to sprint through the tunnel using their quirks Izuku could not help the excitement pumping through him. And a smile stretched across his face.

"You're both strong, but this race is mine." Izuku declared. Both Bakugo and Todoroki extended towards him in order to attack, but Izuku was already prepared and flashed them both an 'ok' sign before he disappeared through the tunnel and secured first place. This action frustrated them both as they sprinted even harder to take second place. Izuku, on the other hand, turned back to watch his classmates and see the order of their arrival. And how many from class 1-A made it into the next round. There were several obvious finishers such as Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, and Iida, but there were also some surprises like Mineta and Kaminari who had finished the race surprisingly quickly.

Examining the others who finished, Izuku noticed that Hatsume from the support department had also managed to secure a high place in the race. And there were several more from the other departments that made it. Interestingly enough, the majority of the Class 1-B members who managed to finish arrived in a large group a bit after the initial entrances were made. Almost as if they had planned to all make it in at that specific area.

And lastly, Izuku noticed the purple haired kid from the classroom. He had made a big show of challenging them, so it was nice to see he was not all talk. 'If possible, I'd like to send him home myself, but that's neither here nor there. First is making it to the finals myself.' Izuku reasoned.

Looking back, he could see that Midnight had announced the cut off for those that would be able to participate in the next round. And looking back Izuku saw the most familiar head of black hair. It was his old rival, Maki. Suddenly, it made sense how a robot could change directions without warning and just so happen to hit him. And Izuku was beginning to get overcome with joy from some of the remaining people in the competition. It would definitely be an excellent time to improve with such strong competitors around.

"Now I will spin the wheel to decide the next event." Midnight called to the crowd. As the wheel spun, Izuku could see several events that did not seem very fun, but ultimately it landed on Calvary Battle. "Our next event will be the calvary battle. The rules are quite simple. Our students will divide into teams of 2-4 and make a horse and a rider. The rider will have the team's total points which have been decided based on the placement from the previous round. Anything goes except intentionally sabotaging another team. The goal is to finish, and the top 16 participants will advance. The points beginning from last place begin at 5 points and add 5 each time."

'That means I should be worth about 2- 'Izuku's train of though was suddenly interrupted.

"Except for first place which will be worth 1 million points." Midnight announced. The entire field seemed to turn on Izuku with bloodlust in their eyes. Izuku on the other hand could only grin back. There was nothing better than having the biggest target on his back. It might make it more difficult to find a team, but the victory would be even sweeter afterwards.

"Take 5 minutes to find your teams and then the event itself will last 20 minutes." Midnight announced.

"Come on then everyone, make it fun for me at least!" Izuku called out.


	16. Chapter 16

Izuku stared down his competition fiercely. From what he could tell they were all ready to make a name for themselves and claim the million points for themselves. He grinned at the absolutely starving look in their eyes and decided that this would be the deadliest stretch of the competition. The only way to advance would be to form a great team. Unfortunately, his quirk and his lack of knowledge of the other classes quirks would lead to limited options. In the end, Izuku decided to go with the safest option and ask his closest friends.

"Iida, Uraraka, would you two like to join my team for the cavalry battle?" Izuku asked.

"I would love to Midoriya!" Uraraka cheerily replied. "What about you Iida?" Izuku and Uraraka both turned to Iida expectantly.

"Unfortunately, Midoriya, I cannot join your team for this event. Despite the fact that I know this is one of the safest routes to the finals, I would like to use this event to make a name for myself. Unfortunately, it feels that if I team up with you here, I'll remain in your shadow." That response seemed to deflate Uraraka instantly. But Izuku was even more fired up.

"Remember for the battle trials we've already fought before. We won't lose easily, so come at us with everything you've got, Iida!" Iida seemed to gain a shine from the encouragement and ran off to find a team where he would truly shine.

However, it was beginning to look bleak for Uraraka and Izuku as most of the classes had begun forming ragtag units ready to take the competition by storm. Suddenly, a familiar tuft of pink hair came into Izuku's view.

"Team up with me, Mr. Million." Izuku could barely suppress a grin at the sight in front of him. It was none other than Mei Hatsume.

"Sure, as long as you promise not to hold us back, Ms. Genius." With that decided, Izuku's team began to devise a plan that would allow them to maintain the million points. Hatsume had no fighting experience but brought a good bit of support items that would greatly supplement their efforts, and Uraraka was still learning how to fight with her hands outside of simply tapping them with her quirk. This left the position of rider up to Izuku. Looking through the class, he saw a pairing he didn't believe would form in such a short time.

"Midoriya, who is that with Mineta?" Uraraka asked. Looking over in the direction she was looking, Izuku paled. It was Mineta and Maki who would be working together in the next stretch of events.

"That's Maki. She's from my hometown. With her, that team is dangerous, and we need to watch out for them." Izuku replied. Mineta's quirk would be troublesome enough in an event like this because it could limit their movements, but if he managed to catch them in one spot and then Maki used their quirk. Izuku paled thinking about the possibility.

Midnight was calling for the teams to make their way to the stage where they would be competing. It was a completely flat stretch of ground and the competition would come down to which teams could come up with the best strategies in such a short span. The spot that Izuku's group chose was directly in the middle of the stage. It was a gamble; but if it came down to it, they could use Hatsume's technology in conjunction with Uraraka's quirk to escape if the situation became too perilous. Midnight was counting down for the event to start and Izuku got ready to unleash his quirk.

"AND START!" Midnight called. In that instant almost all of the 1-A teams and about half of the 1-B teams turned away and began fighting each other for headbands rather than attacking Izuku's team. Three teams still saw this as an opportunity and ran straight at the million-point carrier. As they began to close in, they were gaining confidence because Izuku's team had not made a single move. With the number advantage, they believed one of the teams would be able to take the headband. Suddenly, Hatsume and Uraraka covered their eyes as Izuku opened his hand.

The teams had only a moment to react before a blinding light emerged from Izuku's palm. The rider's were momentarily blinded and Izuku's group took that moment to shoot forward. Using Uraraka's quirk to reduce the weight of Hatsume's gear they were able to very quickly snatch all three teams headbands. With a bit of insurance from the newly acquired headbands, the team headed off towards the edge of the arena.

Bakugo, as vigilant as ever, noticed this and made it his personal mission to take the million-point headband from them at some point. However, he was currently using his explosions to battle off Dark Shadow who was wreaking havoc across the battlefield towards any team unfortunate enough to venture too close to his team. Todoroki, on the other hand, had already decided to observe only the opening and focus all of his team's energy on taking the headband from Izuku. So far, his team had already managed to take a few headbands for themselves.

"Get ready, we're going for the million points from here." Yaoyorozu and Iida nodded in acknowledgement and made their way full speed towards Izuku's group. As they began to close in, Todoroki sent an ice wave dead at the group only to be met with a massive fire wall, cancelling his attack. Heterochromatic eyes met glowing green.

"You know our quirks don't mix too well, right? You'll have to leave this one up to your team." Izuku said confidently. Todoroki could only glare as he prepared to throw another massive wave of ice. Before he could do it though, Izuku's team blasted into the sky far above the competition. Since no one could attack at this height, Izuku took a moment to check the event timer. 'The clock says that about half the time is gone, already? Which means we really need to make sure we maintain distance.'

Suddenly, Izuku heard explosions coming up quickly. Looking down, Izuku could see Bakugo heading straight for them without his team. Izuku grinned as Bakugo closed in before cutting his explosions at the apex so he and Bakugo could come eye to eye. "Nice try, Kacchan." Izuku's comment seemed to ignite a fire in Bakugo who only got angrier as his explosions refused to obey him. Tape from Sero came out to catch him and drag him back towards his team before he hit the ground.

"We'll be landing shortly, Midoriya," Hatsume reported. Izuku nodded obtaining a small mass of flames and sending it towards the ground to spook some of the other teams into creating a landing space. Luckily enough, it did the trick and they landed safely.

"Uraraka, how are you holding up, it's not too much right?" Uraraka shook her head before Izuku's attention was taken away by two more attacking teams. With time running down, some of the teams were getting desperate to advance to the next round. Similarly, in another part of the field a team of 1-B students had decided it was finally time to make their move. Sliding behind Bakugo swiftly the team ripped his team's headband off his head before the team's blonde rider turned around to speak.

"Look at you, always looking down on everyone and only focusing on yourself. But without this, you won't be advancing to the next round, will you?" The blonde rider mocked. Suddenly Bakugo's attention snapped off of Izuku and onto the rider.

"Don't get cocky extra, we'll take our points back and the million too!" Bakugo declared surging his team into action. Using Sero's quirk to trap, Bakugo's quirk to propel, and Kirishima's quirk to bulldoze, the team flew through the 1-B team easily as they reclaimed their lost headband as well as the opposing team's headband.

"Three minutes remaining, pick it up!" Present Mic announced. This spurred Todoroki and Bakugo's teams into full offensive modes. Though they had already managed to secure points of their own, their goal was not to survive the round, but to secure a dominating first place. This led them to Izuku's team that had once again landed after flying.

"We're out of fuel; so, from here on out, it's up to you hero students to keep us going from here." Izuku grinned as both Bakugo and Todoroki had arrived to fight it out for the million with almost no time left. Todoroki flung another ice wave as Bakugo launched large explosions. Thinking quickly, Izuku made a flame wall in order to prevent both attacks. He quickly directed his team to prepare to launch the remaining support equipment at Bakugo's team and engage Todoroki's team directly.

And that they did. Bakugo was busy blasting support items as Izuku and Todoroki came face to face again. This time, Yaoyorozu took the lead using a smoke bomb to try and create some confusion, but Izuku sent a wave of flames forward and put Todoroki on the defensive. Simultaneously, Bakugo found his explosions being blocked once again, severely limiting the teams offensive and defensive capabilities and leaving them relying on Kirishima and his hardening to simply keep them in the competition.

The match was beginning to come to an end. And with less than a minute left. "Midoriya, I can't move!" Uraraka suddenly called. Hatsume also made a similar call. Izuku looked down and saw familiar purple balls at their feet. Looking up, Izuku saw exactly where the current attacks were coming from. Maki and Mineta were approaching quickly and time was running out. Izuku withdrew his attack from Todoroki and Bakugo and tried to slow them down, but with Maki as the horse and Mineta the rider they were too quick to intercept so suddenly.

"Count it down with me now folks from 10- "Present Mic began. At this point, Izuku and Maki were basically face to face. Mineta only had their headband currently and because they didn't finish with extraordinary times their point value was quite low. Izuku lashed out with his flames, but Maki met the attack head on with a weapon she had been provided because she was not in the heroics course.

They exchanged blows and Izuku was finally recognizing the countdown. "5,4,3,2,1, and time!" When the fighting had finally stopped, Izuku saw that the headbands his team had managed to take were around Mineta's neck. Izuku paled before Maki let Mineta down from her shoulders. "Don't worry, I left the million on your head that you worked so hard for. You'll be advancing into the next round." Maki said triumphantly as she walked off the field.

Izuku checked the score board and sure enough his team had been credited with the million points, but the victory definitely felt hollower. Uraraka and Hatsume both congratulated Izuku on managing to hold onto the million-point headband, but Izuku knew the truth. Their advancement had been in Maki's control the entire time. 'I was absolutely helpless against her.'

Izuku loosely listened to Midnight announce the advancing teams. There was an issue with how many teams had managed to make it to the next round, but Shinso's teammates dropped out for some reason. Finally, Midnight announced that they would be taking a small break before they would be advancing into the tournament faze. As Izuku made his way towards the lunchroom, he saw Todoroki glaring again.

Izuku brushed it aside until Todoroki approached him and asked to speak to him in private. Which was odd considering that before today they had limited interactions. Izuku and Todoroki stood opposite each other and for a while Todoroki had a distant look in his eyes before it refocused into hatred. "Tell me have you ever heard of, quirk marriages?"


	17. Chapter 17

Izuku stared distantly as he attempted to recall what a quirk marriage entailed. Thinking back, he could loosely remember people asking his mother if she was involved in a similar situation given his own ridiculous quirk. Grounding himself, he returned to the conversation at hand as Todoroki began to explain his situation.

"I am the last of four siblings, all of whom were the result of a quirk marriage. My father, the number two hero Endeavor, bought my mother from her family in order to create a quirk that would be able to surpass All Might in his stead. Because of that I won't use his power on my left at all." Todoroki explained. Izuku couldn't even begin to understand the information that had been dumped on him. It was shocking to think of any hero doing something like that, but a hero so high in the public's eye getting away with this was ridiculous.

"I won't pretend to understand your circumstances, Todoroki. Use your quirk or don't, it doesn't matter to me. I just need you to understand that it's your quirk and at some point, you're going to use it or you're going to lose. Hopefully it won't be while something bigger than yourself is at stake." With that, Izuku took off towards the cafeteria to start refueling before the preliminaries got started. As he came around the corner, Izuku saw spiky blond hair turning the corner in front of him. 'Nosy bastard,' Izuku thought as he followed the same path towards the cafeteria.

Arriving, he was quickly flagged down by Uraraka and Iida who happened to be sitting at a table near the entrance. Izuku grabbed a plate full of food to gain the fuel his quirk needs to burn to reach its full potential. "So, Midoriya, how does it feel to begin the final event as the first matchup?"

"Yeah, if it was me, I know I would be super nervous to go first. It kind of sets the tone for the rest of us." Uraraka added.

"To be completely honest, I haven't really thought about my match for the most part. I didn't even know I was supposed to be going first," Izuku responded casually between bites. He didn't really care who he'd end up fighting in the next part of the festival as his only goal was to come out on top. "Do either of you know who I'm fighting, anyways?"

Uraraka and Iida both shook their heads partaking of their own snacks as they waited for the next event to start. Iida was drinking orange juice in order to fuel his engines and Uraraka was having a light snack in order to not upset her stomach as much when she started using her quirk. The only other person Izuku saw having a large lunch, besides himself, was Yaoyorozu due to the consumption of body fat that her quirk required.

As Izuku continued to eat his lunch, he pondered strategies to use against his first-round opponent. There were several quirks that he was unaware of; and given how freely he used his quirk in the early rounds, he was at a dangerous disadvantage. As Izuku mulled over the strategies, he was approached by Ojiro who asked to talk to him for a little bit outside the cafeteria. Izuku agreed to meet him there in a bit and stuffed his face before excusing himself.

"What did you want to talk about?" Izuku questioned, getting an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. Ojiro seemed to feel conflicted before he settled a bit and began to speak.

"The guy you're going up against, Shinso, has a quirk that activates when you respond to him. I don't remember anything from before the event until the end of the event, but apparently, he used it on several of us and used us to carry himself to the final round. It was so humiliating. I couldn't accept a spot in the finals without doing something." Ojiro spoke. Izuku often took him as a very plain guy, but he was honorable and wanted to show his skill and stick out in his own way, something which Izuku could respect.

"I appreciate the advice, but I think you should loosen up some. I understand wanting to prove yourself in your own way, but you make it harder on yourself reducing your opportunities." Izuku spoke carefully not to offend him in some way. "I respect what you did and thank you for the advice. Make sure you shine the brightest next time, ok?"

Ojiro beamed at the praise and his tail seemed to reflect that. And now, Izuku had very important information that he wouldn't have had a chance without. Thinking rationally, Izuku determined that his quirk was only triggered by the response and not necessarily the question. Which means the kid has a very powerful quirk. It wouldn't be effective against robots, but against people it could be manipulated into an unrivaled strength. He could probably defeat All Might with that ability, but the danger is only in the response.

Izuku felt confident that he could beat the kid with his new knowledge. The rage Izuku had previously felt at Shinso insulting his classmates had raged into an inferno and suddenly it made sense why Shinso wanted to stick out so much. 'He intentionally tries to get under your skin so that you'll definitely respond to what he says later. It's not as strait laced of an approach as Iida or Ojiro; and I could even see All Might having problems with that strategy, but it's effective. In this industry he could take fights apart without lifting as finger, an invaluable skill.'

As Izuku headed back towards the arena seating area, he heard Shinso's and his names be called to prep in their respective waiting areas. This signaled that the break would be coming to an end very soon and that meant that it was time for the final round to begin. Suddenly the signal to head to the arena sounded, and Izuku found himself walking towards the entrance to where they would be having their match.

Izuku could hear the crowd long before he exited the tunnel, but all he could focus on was the ridiculous opponent in front of him. Izuku walked out as his name was called and the crowd let loose a ridiculous roar. And when they called Shinso's name, the crowd jeered and made fun of him for being a general education student. Izuku focused intently on Shinso who didn't even flinch at the insults.

Midnight was waiting for them while Present Mic was giving them a run down of the rules as they walked forward. Present Mic went through all the ways that one could win; and once he was done, Shinso spoke, "You know that idiot monkey threw his opportunity away for his pride, how foolish." Shinso taunted.

Izuku could only glare, remembering the warning he had received from Ojiro. Shinso continued to try to get under Izuku's skin as he continued his taunts about the entirety of Class 1-A. He sighed as he noticed the lack of reaction from Izuku. "So, they told you about my quirk, didn't they? As if you who was born with a quirk perfect for heroic needs another advantage. You and your entire class are just lucky, entitled bastards." Shinso said. That statement hit Izuku differently than all the previous ones because it discredited not only his own hard work, but also the work his classmates had done in order to make it to this point.

Izuku's eyes, which had remained their normal hue of green, suddenly exploded into a brilliant bright emerald, and the arena's ring flames burst up suddenly. His fury, which he had managed to keep in check for so long, finally exploded forward. And Izuku exhaled as the flames around him dissipated and he spelled something with the flames on his hand.

"COME ON!" The flames spelled. Shinso was taken aback by this since the flames blew away almost as quickly as they arrived. Izuku assumed a fighting stance and motioned again for Shinso to attack.

"This match has gone literally nowhere." Present Mic droned.

"It's because of the problem child. He neutralized Shinso's brainwashing quirk by not responding, but he's giving him the opportunity to prove himself against the heroics classes by fighting him without his quirk. It's his way of evening the field." Mr. Aizawa explained.

Shinso also understood the implications of Izuku's provocation. It was a challenge against what he had just said about quirks making the hero. And Shinso let out a rough yell before rushing forward. As Shinso closed in, Izuku made his move and handily dispatched him by flipping him over and flinging him out of the arena. Shinso landed with a thud and rolled over glaring at Izuku who was walking towards him.

"Your quirk is quite strong; but if you think all it takes to be a hero is a strong quirk, you're mistaken. You insulted us to make it easier for your quirk, but you didn't train yourself to make up for what you lacked. You probably assumed the same on the entrance exam, too didn't you?" Izuku questioned.

Shinso seemed taken aback that there was no hatred in his voice just genuine curiosity. "All my life, I've been told my quirk was a villain's quirk. I thought that if I used it right since it was so strong, I could be a hero and prove them all wrong." Shinso responded begrudgingly.

Izuku made a sound of acknowledgment before he responded. "You definitely have one of the strongest quirks I've ever encountered. I hope someone notices and gets you into the hero class where you belong." Izuku said before walking off. Izuku eventually found the class 1-A seating area just in time for Todoroki and Sero's match.

Most of the class was trying not to say that Todoroki would win the match definitely, but Sero would be hard pressed to get around his ice. Izuku looked to the entrance that Todoroki was walking through and saw a familiar hatred in his eyes. As the match was called, Sero tried to wrap Todoroki up and send him flying outside of the ring. It was a good effort, all things considered; but Todoroki looked up and Izuku could see a distant look in his eyes like he wasn't fighting Sero anymore. Todoroki stomped his foot down and a large wave of ice engulfed the arena. Izuku leaned back pushing the class back with his quirk to move them out of the way of the incoming iceberg.

The commentators box and most of the spectators were completely speechless at the overwhelming display of power. The match was called in Todoroki's favor who approached the incapacitated Sero and began trying to unfreeze him with his left hand. Izuku also joined in on the unfreezing efforts and before long they were almost ready for the next match. Izuku walked back out through one of the entrances where Mineta was walking in for his match.

"You and Maki are childhood friends, right?" Mineta asked as he passed by. Izuku stopped and looked over his shoulder to respond to Mineta.

"Something like that, but we're not as close these days." Mineta looked at him like he'd just received the best news.

"So, do you think she'd let me-" Mineta rushed.

"Listen, you should honestly focus on your match with her more than anything. Her quirk is ridiculously strong; and you need to make sure that you don't underestimate her simply because she's in the business course." Izuku warned. Mineta seemed to acknowledge the advice before he blushed, and his mind wandered somewhere else as he walked off. Izuku sighed and thought to himself how ugly this match could get.

Turning and walking, Izuku made his way to the 1-A seating area before the match started. He was met with smiles as he returned to his seat and prepared for the match to begin. Mineta stood ready to face Maki. When the match was called, Mineta reached straight into his hair. Izuku watched intently and suddenly, Mineta was standing outside the ring facing the way he came in with Maki turned around walking towards the out of bounds line.

It took a moment for the ref and the commentator to call the match and even longer for the spectators to understand what happened. Izuku, himself, could only grin at the overwhelming power that Maki had just displayed.

Yet again the next match was being hurried along. This time it was an orange haired girl from 1-B and Yaoyorozu. They both looked determined to advance the match and show their talents.

The girl, who Izuku heard from the announcements was named Kendo, fell into what appeared to be a very traditional martial arts stance. Yaoyorozu kept her own stance very loose. Suddenly, the match was called, and Kendo surged forward as her hands enlarged. Yaoyorozu responded by making a shield to intercept the girl.

Izuku watched as Kendo hit the shield repeatedly trying to overwhelm Yaoyorozu as she attempted to break her concentration and stop her from creating something else. Yaoyorozu seemed to be getting flustered by the amount of blows she was receiving. Finally, a large blow knocked the shield out of her hands and sent Yaoyorozu rolling back. Kendo then ran forward to land the finishing blow before Yaoyorozu made a metal object and threw it forward. The object turned out to be a smoke bomb and using the lack of sightlines Yaoyorozu made her move.

Kendo tried to use her large hands to blow away the smoke, but by extending her hands so much she created an opening for Yaoyorozu to exploit. She made handcuffs, clamping them down on Kendo's wrists. This greatly inhibited Kendo's fighting and gave Yaoyorozu a clear advantage to overwhelm Kendo and send her out of the ring with a staff. Izuku grinned as he watched Yaoyorozu take the initiative and lead the pace in battle.

The next match was of a similar intensity as Kirishima's hardening came into contact with Tetsutetsu's steel. Their quirks and personalities were very similar. And their match ultimately ended in a draw that would be decided later.

"Midoriya, what do you think of the upcoming match with Bakugo and Uraraka?" Iida asked. Midoriya looked down at the arena and pondered for a moment before he responded.

"It isn't impossible, but it will definitely be an uphill battle for Uraraka," Izuku replied casually.

"You don't think Bakugo would seriously use his full force against a girl, do you?" Iida asked at a yell.

"I mean she's in the hero course just like the rest of us. For me, personally, not using my power against her would be like looking down at her. And for Bakugo especially it wouldn't suffice because he wants to be number one." Before Iida could ask another question, Present Mic announced the names for the next match.

And suddenly it began. There was a furious barrage of explosions as Uraraka used tactic after tactic to get as close as possible to use her quirk on Bakugo. Several times it seemed as if she would touch him, but ultimately, she could not remove him from his original spot. The crowd, though, had enough of Bakugo.

"Stop bullying her! She's just a girl!" One spectator called out.

"Yeah, if there's such a huge difference just send her out of the ring already!" Another yelled.

Even some of 1-A were beginning to think it was getting a bit excessive. Some of them couldn't bare to watch, but Izuku was glued to what was happening.

"How can you even watch this anymore, Midoriya?" Jiro asked suddenly.

"The match isn't over yet. Uraraka still has a lot of fight left in her." The class looked back to the ring and suddenly Uraraka's furious determination made sense. There was a large cloud of debris above the arena and slowly everyone seemed to be noticing it.

Uraraka released the attack and then came in low. This was her all out gambit to win the match. Bakugo adjusted himself before blowing the debris and Uraraka away all at once. Izuku took note. 'That seems to be about the max amount those gauntlets of his can give off.'

Izuku looked at the arena to see Uraraka crawling forward. "It looks like it's over. It was a great match." Izuku commented as Uraraka was escorted out of the arena. Bakugo also seemed to be holding his arm that launched the explosion tightly and was making his own way out of the arena. Cementoss was called in to fix the arena and they took a short intermission while Shiozaki and Kaminari got ready for their match. Izuku remained in his seat and waited patiently for the next match.

When it finally arrived though, it did not live up to expectations. Izuku watched as Kaminari seemingly flirted with his opponent before incapacitating himself and being removed from the arena via his opponents quirk. It was underwhelming at best and the next match between Iida and Hatsume did little to rectify the mood. Hatsume had given him support gear which she showed off by using Iida as a ragdoll before simply stepping out of the ring. Honestly some of the gear was quite impressive.

"And that marks the end of our first round of matches. We'll take another short break and resume quickly to the next round." Izuku made his way down towards his waiting room when he was suddenly met in the hallway by someone. It was the number two hero, Endeavor.


	18. Chapter 18

Izuku was surprised to say the least. Endeavor was one of his idols growing up, especially since his quirk had similarities to the hero. It was a different time in his life where he followed heroes more closely, but here Izuku could clearly remember it. The thought left a sour taste in his mouth. Izuku walked along the opposite wall on the hallway to head to the arena for his match before the hero stopped him.

"Boy, do you have no respect for your elders?" Endeavor called as Izuku passed. Turning around, Izuku found himself staring up at the flame hero. "You're quite powerful. Which hero's son are you? They must have been quite powerful?" Endeavor questioned.

Izuku stared for a moment before he replied. "My dad is a businessman in America, from what I've heard he breathes fire. And my mom has weak telekinesis."

"It's best if you don't lie to me child." Endeavor shot back.

Izuku stared as the temperature of the hallway began increasing. "Is it hard to believe that my family didn't sell themselves for a strong quirk?" Izuku inquired. At this rate, he'd be fighting most of the Todoroki Family by the end of the day. Suddenly, the hallway cooled as the hero turned.

"I was going to tell you to try and give Shoto a good match, but you're no match for my masterpiece. Even if he is handicapping himself," Endeavor taunted. As he began to walk away, Izuku stared at his back and against his better judgement called out to him.

"I see where Todoroki gets his attitude now. He doesn't speak much, but you two are quite similar. However, he's not you, and that power isn't yours either." Izuku turned and continued down the hallway. "He can use his full power or none of it for all I care. In the end, I'll be the one who comes out on top." With his final piece said, Izuku turned down the hallway to head to his match.

Waiting in the hallway, he heard Midnight and Present Mic call for Todoroki to enter the arena and the crowd exploded in cheers. When they called Izuku's name, the crowd became even louder. He walked out confidently, ready to face his opponent. The arena was roaring as the two powerhouses faced off. Izuku stretched to warm up a little bit before Midnight asked if he was ready. He nodded and Todoroki did the same.

The match was called, and Todoroki sent another iceberg. Seeing it coming, Izuku raised his body temperature slightly before he was engulfed in the ice. The entire arena sounded disappointed as Izuku was covered in ice. However, that disappointment flipped suddenly as steam began to emerge from the iceberg and suddenly a hand popped out of the ice.

"That was a good effort." Izuku shrugged as Todoroki could do nothing but glare. Crossing his arms, Izuku stared back at Todoroki before another wave of ice came forward. This time Izuku emerged from the ice even quicker looking for Todoroki who had suddenly disappeared. Izuku looked left before his instincts told him to duck and a leg swept over where his head once was.

Izuku looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Todoroki before flipping away and putting some distance between the two. Todoroki tried to send another small wave, but this time it was exceptionally slower than the first two. Instead of taking this one head on, Izuku easily jumped to the side of it.

"Your ice is way slower than it usually is, and on top of that you're shivering. You don't have enough resistance to your quirk without using both sides, do you?" Izuku inquired. Todoroki seemed to grow colder as he sent another wave of ice forward. And though this one was larger; it was still the slowest of them all and Izuku took the moment to disappear himself.

When the ice had calmed some, Todoroki couldn't see anything outside of the ice-covered arena in front of him. Todoroki froze as he felt a small warmth from behind him. Izuku sighed as Todoroki turned on him swiftly.

"You're absolutely terrified of fire, aren't you?" Todoroki tried to turn and explode in another wave of ice but there was a heat on his right side that nullified his ice. And suddenly, Todoroki was defenseless. He began to swing wildly at Izuku, desperately attempting to wring his arm free. Leisurely dodges were all the effort Izuku would expend to avoid the blows.

"If this is all you've got then just give up. This is as far as you go." Izuku said. Todoroki was consumed by a blind rage.

"You don't understand anything, you're probably working for my father! f I use his quirk, I'll be no better than him." Todoroki yelled. He was still struggling to get free.

Izuku sighed as the display continued. "Your blood doesn't define you. It's your quirk, you can be whoever you want to be with that power."

Todoroki's struggles ended suddenly and there was a pause. The audience was confused as Todoroki stopped fighting and he looked into the distance. Izuku could only watch as the distant look suddenly changed and hardened as his left side exploded. Izuku's reaction was to jump back suddenly and put distance between himself and Todoroki. Izuku thought he might have a moment to breathe, but then the fire streamed towards him.

Izuku could only smile as he sent a wave of fire back to block. Todoroki stared forward and matched the smile with an equal grin of his own. Suddenly, the two of them clashed again and the arena exploded into shouting when suddenly Endeavor began to call to the arena. But before he could make any substantial progress in what he was saying, his beard flared into his face stopping him from talking.

"Sorry, but we made great progress today and I refuse to lose that to you." Izuku quipped as he faced off with Todoroki. "How about we go ahead and finish this."

Todoroki nodded as he launched a wave of ice larger than any other before. Izuku ducked around the ice and went flying dead at Todoroki when suddenly Todoroki switched to his fire. It was in that moment that Izuku realized exactly what was occurring and cut Todoroki's flames before closing the gap. By the time Todoroki could react, he had a foot driven into his side and was sent flying out of bounds violently.

Izuku then looked and realized that part of his body had been wrapped in the cement of the arena and another part of his arm was wrapped in Midnight's whip. Once the match was called and Todoroki was taken away to Recovery Girl's temporary office, Izuku was allowed to leave the ring.

As Izuku walked down the hall and a small recess occurred to fix the ring for the next match, Izuku made his way to the 1-A seating area where Yaoyorozu had already left for the waiting room. When he returned, he was swarmed with questions about Yaoyorozu's opponent for the next match.

"She's your friend do you know what her quirk is?" Jiro asked.

"Do you know how to handle it?" Hagakure followed.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what to call her quirk, but it's a bit ridiculous. She has a heat manipulation quirk, but it's an extreme heat." Izuku replied as he looked for the correct way to explain Maki's quirk to the class. "I guess in simple terms it's so hot around her when she manipulates heat that it expands the universe around her for a moment."

Some of his classmates looked a bit confused at the explanation and that made Izuku sigh. "Basically, she can stop time." The class looked ready to riot at hearing the explanation for her quirk. "She can't do it forever because without anything to heat her in that universe she creates she would freeze, but she can stop time for probably ten seconds at this point."

Before anyone could make another comment Yaoyorozu and Maki were called to the arena. Which happened to be Bakugo and Kirishima's cue to head to the waiting room and wait for the match to end. As Izuku looked to the arena, he could see Yaoyorozu trying to calm herself against her opponent. It was obvious that she was beyond nervous because she had most likely concluded what Maki's quirk was.

Midnight called for the match to begin and suddenly Yaoyorozu was sliding on her back and rolled close to the edge of the arena. She looked a bit confused but made a weapon quickly and rushed forward only to be repelled back further. And just as quickly as the match started, Yaoyorozu found herself at the edge of the ring.

Instead of responding by fighting back, she dropped her weapons and stepped out of bounds herself. She hung her head as she walked out of the arena and Izuku could only stare at her back as she dejectedly walked into the hallway. Maki seemed stunned to have an opponent simply walk out of the arena, but with this she secured the match she wanted. And soon triumphantly left the arena.

Some of the girls left to find Yaoyorozu, but Izuku stayed in his seat. Despite the fact that he was the class rep there was nothing he could do if she admitted defeat herself. At the moment her confidence most likely took a major hit and until she worked through that nothing anyone said would be of any use to her. It could only amount to empty words.

Meanwhile because the match had ended so suddenly, Kirishima and Bakugo were soon facing off. Kirishima hardened himself and rushed forward in an attempt to close the distance between himself and Bakugo, but Bakugo unleashed explosion after explosion. Before long, it became clear that it was a war of attrition. For every step forward that Kirishima could manage in his hardened state, he was pushed another half-step back by Bakugo's explosions.

Bakugo himself didn't move from his original spot in order to beat Kirishima at his own game and further assert himself among his classmates. Kirishima, to his credit, was making excellent progress and was slowly closing the distance between himself and Bakugo, but the explosions began to pick up in power.

Izuku noticed it himself and realized exactly why in an instant. The reason that Bakugo could afford to play such a risky game is because the longer he fights the more he sweats. And in his case, more sweat meant even greater firepower. There was very little Kirishima could do as he began to be pushed farther and farther away from Bakugo. The match has even lasted so long that his hardening was starting to break down. Suddenly, Kirishima found that there were no more explosions coming and looking forward, he could see Bakugo propelling himself forward with explosions.

Returning to his guard, Kirishima was surprised when Bakugo broke through and then even more shocked when the largest explosion of the match sent him sliding outside of the ring towards the wall. By the time Kirishima managed to stop, he had already well lost the match and was left even more in awe of Bakugo than ever before.

"That was super manly!" Kirishima declared as he ran after Bakugo already forgetting the bitterness of defeat.

Izuku could only sigh at the display. There was a brief pause between the matches as the arena needed a small touch-up, but eventually the final match came into view. It was Iida versus the girl from 1-B, Izuku recalled. Present Mic supplied that her name was Shiozaki over the announcements. The match was quite underwhelming though as Iida rushed straight forward and pushed the girl out of bounds before she could use her quirk. Izuku was perplexed by Iida's decision. Despite the fact that he could have lost, he was still quite gentle with how he pushed her out of bounds.

Izuku looked over and saw Maki glaring into his direction and could only smile back. When Present Mic announced that there would be a small break before the next matches, Izuku went to the waiting room assigned to him for the match. Thinking back, he could remember every match he had ever lost to Maki even before they started using their quirks in training. She had always won every match and it was during that time that Izuku made her his goal to surpass.

Izuku looked around the empty room and sighed. "This is my first step in becoming a hero, surpassing who I used to be and beating Maki. Only then can I say I moved forward."


	19. Chapter 19

Izuku found peace in waiting despite this fight being one of his biggest so far. Not just for the chance to be chosen by a pro hero, but also for Izuku himself. Eventually, the match was called, and he made his way into the arena calmly. Maki was standing in the middle of the arena with her arms crossed. Slowly the noise in the arena was starting to fade out and all of his focus was on the opponent before him.

"Fighters, are you ready?" Midnight called. There was a small nod from both, and Midnight called for the two to begin. It was sudden, but they both exploded forward meeting in the middle of the ring quickly. They exchanged blows in the middle neither quite landing on the other as they countered each other's moves easily.

Seeing no point in continuing the exchange, they separated before clashing again. This time, Maki led with her quirk, quickly disappearing from in front of Izuku and appearing on his side. Izuku reacted quickly and turned meeting her blow head on and forcing her back before rushing forward himself. Suddenly, Izuku felt immense pain in his side and was flying towards the wall.

'Shit!' Izuku thought as he forced flames from his palms, launching himself upward and flying around the arena. He took a moment to look over Maki and decided on a course of action. This time making an 'ok' sign with his hand, Izuku flew past Maki, grabbing her by the leg and slinging her towards the out of bounds line.

As she was about to hit the out of bounds line, the world paused, and Maki calmly righted herself before resetting in the middle. Maki drew her sword which she had been saving for this moment and shot forward. Izuku prepared his own counter, 'Iai Chop, Form Seven: Sun Wheel'. The attacks collided forcing them both backwards, Maki managing to leave a small cut on Izuku's side.

"You're a lot better than when we were kids, but I should've figured. You've greatly improved since you abandoned us to go play hero." Maki taunted. Izuku froze in his tracks and the match came to a screeching halt. "You used us up and learned some of our techniques and left us for bigger and better. You don't care about any of us. All you wanna do is become some hotshot hero."

"If you think I spent all those four years playing hero, you're wrong. There were certain things I needed to practice in order to keep moving forward. I'll show you the results of what I've worked towards." Izuku stretched out a bit before taking a crouching position. Suddenly, the temperature started increasing.

Maki focused on Izuku carefully. Suddenly, he looked up and the orange wings around his eyes ignited. He closed the gap in an instant fist reared back, 'Calidos Brachium.' Maki could only duck to barely dodge the punch and suddenly Izuku was coming from another direction just as quickly.

Maki activated her quirk, attacking Izuku and sending him flying towards the out of bounds line. As he approached though, he made a motion as if kicking off of something and changed his direction. Before landing again back in the ring. "What the hell is that?" Maki questioned "Your quirk never did anything like that when we trained together."

"It's simple, honestly. My quirk is fire and has always been somewhat tied to my emotions. Some of my emotions raged and expanded my quirk. This one specifically represents ferocity!

Suddenly, Izuku jumped forward again to apply pressure onto Maki. She countered by using her quirk to send Izuku flying again, but his newfound mobility allowed him to continue to pressure her. So, at times Maki could only dodge and recover from using her quirk.

At this point, the audience was stunned at the sight they were seeing. The fight was quite vicious despite the fact that Izuku hadn't yet landed a single substantial blow. Even Izuku's classmates were in shock because none of them had seen his powers before. Meanwhile, Bakugo was fuming at the discovery of Izuku's new powers.

"Midoriya continues his ferocious assault!" Present Mic called knocked out of his own stupor for the match.

"Despite the amount of effort, he's expending he's got very little to show for it. It's impressive, but not very rational." Eraserhead drawled.

Izuku continued his relentless assault, but it wasn't all meaningless in his mind. '1,2,3,4' Izuku repeated in his head after each of Maki's attacks. He was slowly figuring out the approximate down time between uses of Maki's quirk. Finally, Maki overextended and began to look quite tired from the extended repeated uses of her quirk.

Izuku kicked off the air and came in low straight towards Maki with his fist alight. Maki tried to dodge; but because of her overextension, she didn't have enough time and was suddenly met with a punch to the stomach, sending her flying straight into the air.

"Like this, even you won't be able to dodge what's coming!" Izuku declared. Maki took note that the once full wings around his eyes were less than a quarter of what they once were. "Now take this! Heat Zone: Calidos Brachium Barrage!" Suddenly, flames started to form around Maki in every direction. Izuku swung his fists and attacks started flying from each flame to attack Maki.

Maki froze time to avoid some of the attacks and readjust herself. However, there was nowhere to go once her quirk ran out and eventually the barrage of flames fired at her relentlessly. "Sorry, but this is as far as you go, Maki!" Izuku continued the barrage until Maki stopped resisting the barrage allowing her to fall to the ground.

Maki was unconscious, but not much worse for wear overall. However, Izuku looked much closer to the loser of the match because of the damage he allowed himself to take. Izuku looked himself over before walking over to the robots taking Maki and following them towards Recovery Girl's office. Even if the stamina loss would hurt having this many wounds would definitely be more detrimental to becoming the champion.

As Izuku approached Recovery Girl's office, he felt a sense of danger and suddenly the door swung open. The woman in question opened the door and swung at Izuku hitting him in the shin.

"It was quite reckless, for both of you, what you did young man. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Recovery Girl questioned as she allowed the robots to carry Maki inside.

"Sorry Granny, this fight just meant a little more to me. I felt like this was one I had to win at any cost." Izuku replied.

"Firstly, don't call me Granny. Secondly, you're reminding me of a certain number one idiot with that blatant disregard for your health. Follow me, I'll get both of you fixed up soon." Recovery Girl said as she led them into the office.

Maki was sat down in one bed and Izuku took the bed next to her. Recovery Girl gave Maki a full treatment and Izuku a partial treatment so that he would be able to finish the tournament without falling asleep. Laying down, Izuku faced the TV to see Bakugo and Iida's match.

Iida and Bakugo's match would be an interesting one in Izuku's opinion. There were several ways that it could play out and both of the fighters were highly intelligent even if they did have opposite personalities.

Izuku watched carefully as the two stood off from each other analyzing the other. Neither had fought against the other before, but they were somewhat familiar with the strengths of the other which made for an interesting battle.

Iida turned and took off with long strides around Bakugo circling him. Bakugo, for his part, sat in the same spot as his eyes darted after Iida. He wouldn't underestimate him since he made it this far, but Bakugo was confident in the skills he developed leading up to the tournament. Iida turned sharply and sprinted at Bakugo from the side and Bakugo reacted by launching himself upward. Iida stopped and watched as Bakugo brought himself down carefully.

As soon as Bakugo landed, he went on the offensive and launched a barrage of explosions at Iida, which Iida responded to by running away. Realizing Iida's strategy, Bakugo aimed ahead of Iida and let off a large explosion which engulfed a corner of the arena. However, the explosion only caught Iida's side and left minimal damage.

Iida took a moment to catch his breath as he watched his opponent. Bakugo was remaining a certain distance away from Iida in order to not get overwhelmed by his speed. Iida knew that he would need to get closer in order to take Bakugo down because tricks wouldn't work in an arena like this.

Izuku watched carefully as Iida readjusted his running position for directly towards Bakugo. Iida had a focused face as he sprinted towards Bakugo. And as Bakugo lifted off again, Iida's engines ignited. And he flew into the air after Bakugo. Bakugo was surprised for a moment, but he adjusted his course so that Iida would miss him. Because of the nature of Iida's Recipro, he couldn't change his course again and was left to careen out of bounds by his own hand.

Izuku frowned a bit disappointed that Iida hadn't gotten a chance to show his skills, but he believed he still had a respectable showing. For now, Izuku could only roll out of bed and begin to make his way to his match. He was stopped by a hand reaching out to stop him. "I'm sorry, for doubting you and thinking that you never cared about us, I-" Maki began before she was interrupted.

"Don't apologize. You're one of my closest friends and I shouldn't have let our friendship go like that. Let's go out one day and reconnect. Besides, I really want to try and learn your technique again." Izuku replied.

Maki sighed, "Of course we can reconnect you idiot, but do you really think you can learn that now. I recognize that you've gotten stronger, but it takes a lot of heat."

"I don't know, but I want to try again. I may have been imagining it, but I think I could see you during our fight. It was only for an instant, but I think if I work at it, I can use that technique." Izuku stated staring dead into Maki's eyes.

"How about a wager? We'll go out on me and I'll help you learn the technique if you win the tournament." Maki said with a sly smile on her face.

Izuku grinned as he turned to walk out. "Hey Gran keep my bed empty, I'm gonna sleep like a log when this is all over." Izuku rushed out of the recovery area and down the hall. As he turned the corner, Recovery Girl looked over to Maki before smiling.

"Young love at it's finest." Maki glared at the old woman before rolling over and getting some rest. Meanwhile, Iida was having a much more uncomfortable conversation.

"Are you serious? I'll be right over." Iida said as he rushed to gather his things and leave the arena. He would love to congratulate the winner since his class had made it so far in the tournament, but his brother had been badly injured, and he needed to get there immediately.

Izuku noticed Iida's absence in the stands, but for now he was determined to win this tournament and train with Maki again. It would be great since he wasn't that close with all of his classmates, but he would also fell better not hurting her again. Focusing on the moment, he saw Bakugo enter the ring across from him. Bakugo took a loose stance and the two faced off against each other.

As Midnight called the match, Bakugo rushed forward and instead of Izuku's normal calm and reaction-based fighting style; he once again came on the offensive. He flew forward faster than Bakugo could think and smashed his forehead into Bakugo's nose. Bakugo reeled back as his nose began bleeding and tried to let off an explosion to put some distance between the two.

Izuku cancelled the explosions. And came forward again quickly. This time Izuku feinted as if he were going to strike Bakugo with his elbow, however, he then changed course when Bakugo attempted to block. He delivered a stunning roundhouse kick and sent Bakugo flying out of bounds. Bakugo attempted to right himself with explosions, but once again they refused to heed his call. And Bakugo fell out of the arena. It was then that Bakugo realized he had undeniably lost.

Shamelessly, Bakugo rushed forward at Izuku yelling bloody murder. "I'll fucking kill you, you stuck up bastard!" Bakugo flew forward in a blind rage; and before he could react, Izuku moved to the side and subdued him, knocking him unconscious.

In the end, this rage carried over into the closing ceremony of the sports festival. Bakugo being forced into restraints and had his medal shoved into his mouth. Izuku frowned as he once again noticed the absence of Iida; but in the moment, he accepted the medal graciously. He would check on Iida later, but for now he would enjoy his victory.


	20. Chapter 20

Izuku sat on his couch in shock, looking at the news in front of him. The headlines were reporting that the hero, Ingenium, had been attacked by the hero killer and was currently in critical condition. Izuku felt sick to his stomach, thinking about Iida taking off after the Sports Festival. At the time, he had been enchanted by his victory; but thinking about it now, he should have looked for him or said something.

"So today is probably one of the last chances we'll get to try and put your new technique together. So, let's try it again." Maki requested, breaking him from his thoughts to begin their training session.

Izuku nodded as he began to condense his flames inside of himself. It was something they had spent the time off after the sports festival working on. Izuku practiced condensing and heating flames within himself without heating the surrounding area. The hardest part was continuing to increase the temperature without releasing any flames from his body.

"Remember once you release that heat from yourself, it must be continuous in order to operate within the expanded universe." Maki mentioned as she continued to watch him. Over the past few days, they had begun to train together again like when they were younger. It quickly became comfortable and nostalgic.

Izuku focused on the temperature. After countless times of watching Maki release her quirk, he began to figure out just how far off he was and began training harder to adjust the strength of his flames. Suddenly, Izuku released the stored heat and saw something amazing. It seemed like for an instant everything around him froze completely and suddenly Izuku was exhausted. He fell to the ground as the world around him began to move once more.

"Are you ok?" Maki asked as she strolled up to Izuku's kneeling form. Izuku nodded as he smiled in her direction.

"I got it. It's not usable yet, but I have an idea for how it works. I can't call it stopping time yet, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel." Maki smiled proudly. Izuku had taken to training well when they were kids, but this was completely new territory. To change the nature of how he used his quirk to be able to mimic her own, especially so quickly, was beyond impressive.

Izuku attempted to stand and found himself laying stretched out on the ground. "Forget unusable. I literally can't move anymore." Izuku chuckled.

Maki sighed as the picked Izuku's body up and headed towards the town. Despite his impressive work ethic, he was always overdoing it. As Maki reminisced, she felt Izuku's head lull to the side and some light snoring. Maki followed the path she remembered back to Izuku's house and walked through the front door. She dropped Izuku off in his room, which for the most part had not changed since they were kids.

As Maki turned to leave, she felt a hand grab her. "Did you hear the news about Ingenium?" Izuku asked suddenly. Maki was shaken by his sudden awakening, but she focused to nod her head at the question.

"I don't know if you've heard, but one of my classmates is his little brother. He looks up to him a lot, and I feel like I'm letting him down." Izuku said.

Maki sighed, "You're the softest idiot I know. Only you could hold back to avoid injuring people who are intentionally trying to hurt you and still blame yourself for something that isn't your fault. There's only so much you can do. The best thing you can do right now is be there for your friend."

"I'm not an idiot, but thanks." Izuku said as he rolled over to rest. He would be leaving later tonight to be back on campus before class tomorrow. Maki took this as her cue to leave and got her things ready to go. She had recently become famous in the business course because of her performance in the sports festival and would need to dedicate extra time to her work.

Izuku awoke a bit later feeling more rested than before. 'That technique was worse than Recovery Girl's healing and it only lasted for as long as a blink.' Izuku sighed as he went to get his travel bag. He was had to leave soon to meet Maki at the train station on time.

Izuku and Maki arrived at the station at the same time. After boarding the train, they played games to pass the time. Entirely different from their previous trips together to the campus. Usually it felt like a train ride with a stranger. However, this time the ride was comfortable and quick due to their newly rekindled friendship.

That night Izuku arrived at the dorms to find them as rambunctious as they usually were though the expressions of some of his classmates were strained.

Izuku nodded as he headed up to the dorms and dropped his bag off in his room and headed for Iida's room. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for Iida's response. When none came, he knocked harder. "Open up, it's the class rep." Izuku called through the door.

Izuku waited patiently yet again and the door cracked open and Iida finally came out. Although he tried to put Izuku at ease with his expression, Izuku could see that it was fake. "Listen, I'll keep it brief. If you need anything, let me know." Izuku said as he locked eyes with Iida. Iida hesitated for a moment, starting and cutting off several sentences.

"I appreciate your concern Midoriya, but- "Iida finally concluded on but was quickly interrupted.

"If you're gonna tell me you don't need it, save it for someone else. For now, just know your classmates care about you." Izuku said as he walked off down the hallway and back down the stairs to his own dorm room. Izuku knew that Iida was trying to lie to him, but for now there was nothing he could do except let him know that he was there for him.

Izuku's once restless thoughts of Ingenium were slowly beginning to still. And the next morning, Izuku was back to his usual routine of morning exercise. However, he had made some slight changes to his training schedule. Instead of working through all of his forms, he reworked from square one practicing only a single form to make it more fluid.

He also saw Iida going through his own morning exercise routine, though his movements didn't look nearly as energetic. Despite that fact, both Izuku and Iida were promptly present for class well before it started, followed by Yaoyorozu and then Todoroki surprisingly enough. Eventually, the entire class filed in and they were only waiting on their teacher.

The conversations were loud and rambunctious, but they quickly quieted down as a giant yellow caterpillar entered the room. Eventually, emerging to reveal their teacher Mr. Aizawa.

"Good work on the sports festival everyone. There were a lot of pro heroes watching and you each managed to give it your plus ultra. At this time, I'm going to show you everyone's internship offers for next week. You will fill out a form informing the school who you'd like to intern with; and then for the week after that, you'll work with them instead of coming here."

This seemed to spark some of the class' excitement until Mr. Aizawa activated his quirk to silence the class. "Also, for those of you that did not make much of an impression; for now, we have heroes who have agreed to take on students who have yet to show themselves during the sports festival. Now if you'll look towards the board, here are your offers."

The distribution of offers was skewed from the top of the list to the bottom of the list. Bakugo looked furious despite having about 3,500 offers. Todoroki just barely beating him out with a bit over 4,000 offers. Izuku, on the other hand, had received nearly 6,000 offers. After that, the rest of the class could not reach 500 offers. Some of the class was proud of their offers, but others were determined to close the gap between themselves and the top.

"How did I receive fewer offers than some of you who didn't even make the final tournament?!" Mineta squealed. Though it was drowned out as Mr. Aizawa came around the class delivering packets with all of the heroes who applied to them listed in order. Izuku looked through the first few names on his list before he was interrupted by Mr. Aizawa clearing his throat.

"Because of the nature of hero work you will be picking codenames that you will be known by in the field. Take this seriously. If they stick, that's what you'll be known by for the rest of your career. And to help with this process we have-" Mr. Aizawa continued.

"ME!" Midnight exclaimed as she suddenly entered the room. Her sudden appearance was a welcomed sight for the class as she swiftly handed out boards and markers for the class to write down and present their hero names. The class quickly got to work with some of the class thinking very carefully having never considered this and others having thought of this since long before.

Asui introduced herself as Froppy which was quickly accepted by the class and gave way to a series of creative heroic names while others made their hero name the same as their quirk name. Eventually, the class came down to only about a handful of people left: Izuku, Bakugo, Iida, and Todoroki. It was Todoroki that broke the stalemate as he came forward and introduced his new hero name Shoto.

Izuku thought to himself quietly and remembered his journey up to this point. Though, he may have shown his strength in the sports festival, he would always be that same scared kid who burned down his house. And he thought his hero name should remind him of that. Instead of his destination it would tell the story of his origin.

With that in mind, it was simple to take a note from his old friend and decide on his hero name. He walked to the front of the room with his sign held proudly. "I'll be the Demolition Hero: Deku." The class seemed to appreciate that as Bakugo brought another name forward to be rejected. And eventually Iida settled on his own first name Tenya. And time ran out for the hero name selection process.

In the meantime, Izuku made his way down to the support studio to meet a certain mad scientist. Opening the door to the studio, Izuku was immediately put to work extinguishing several of Hatsume's experiments at work. Finally, once the support studio came to a calm, Izuku found Hatsume getting lectured by Powerloader at the front of the room.

"Hey Powerloader, can I borrow Hatsume?" Izuku inquired.

"I guess since you just saved me the time and effort of cleanup. What did you need her for?" Powerloader responded.

"I need the status on my tools and that costume upgrade if that's ok?" Izuku replied feral grin mounted on his face.

Hatsume matched that with an equally feral grin and Izuku was taken deeper into the support lab. Looking around, Hatsume pulled the case with Izuku's class number out and shoved it into his hands excitedly. Izuku opened it and could not believe his eyes.

Throughout the school, a pair of maniacal laughs could be heard from the support studio along with the rushing sound of flames and the clicking of dress shoes on a linoleum floor.


	21. Chapter 21

The class was abuzz for the rest of the week. Between discussing and choosing which heroes they wanted to intern with, they could hardly focus on the classes ahead of them. Much of the class had narrowed down which hero they would be interning with, but Izuku found the list to be overwhelming. So much that he was once again looking through the list during his lunch period.

"Midoriya, have you decided which hero you're going to intern with next week?" Uraraka asked, seeing Izuku surrounded by his packets.

"No, there's so many heroes here. And from what I'm researching about them, none of them seem like a good fit." Izuku replied with his head in his hand. Though there were plenty of heroes in the top 20 who wanted him to intern with them, none of them seemed to fit him well. It was beyond frustrating especially as Izuku got deeper into the list.

"What about you, Uraraka?" Izuku questioned seriously.

"I'm going to be interning with Gunhead. I want to improve my fighting so that I'm not as hindered ever again." Uraraka replied determinedly. Izuku met her stare before focusing back on his list. There weren't many options that looked that good, so he'd probably end up interning with the highest ranked hero he saw on his list. When suddenly a hand slammed down a piece of paper.

Izuku looked up suddenly to meet Mr. Aizawa's deadpan stare. "Good to see you aren't busy, problem child. This is a late offer from a hero that wants you to intern with them." Mr. Aizawa sighed, mumbling something about rationality before walking off back in the direction that he came from.

Izuku stared off after his teacher before turning his attention to the piece of paper. He stared at the piece of paper for a bit before he smiled ferally. "I guess this will be the hero I intern with then." Uraraka stared at him questioningly before Izuku turned the piece of paper to her and Uraraka read the name on the page.

"AH, that's amazing, Midoriya! But that reminds me why I came over here. Iida told me who he was interning with. Have you ever heard of the hero, Manual?" Uraraka inquired. Izuku thought for a moment before he pulled out his phone to look the hero up. Reading through some of the information, he was not surprised to see one crucial piece of information.

"Manual is based in Hosu, interesting," Midoriya mumbled. "That's the last place they saw the Hero Killer, isn't it?" Uraraka nodded. If Izuku had to guess, then he would bet Iida would go after the hero killer. Someone he cannot beat right now.

Izuku sighed, "We'll just have to believe he's better than that. Because he is." Izuku sighed as he finished his internship form and headed for homeroom. There wasn't much he could do if Iida already turned in his paper. He'd just have to hope that Manual could keep Iida out of trouble.

It wasn't many days after that the class found themselves at the train station being led by Mr. Aizawa towards the platforms. "Now remember, you aren't to take your costumes out until you reach the agency and only at the order of the hero you're interning with."

The class echoed a 'yes sir' in unison before they were excused and left for their trains. Izuku and Uraraka exchanged a look as Iida walked off alone and came up behind him. "Iida," Uraraka started. But she was quickly interrupted.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything reckless." Iida replied with a smile on his face. Izuku nodded to him as Iida turned and walked towards his platform. Izuku also turned around and started walking towards his train before he looked over his shoulder.

"Fucking liar." Izuku mumbled before he headed for his own train. The agency was a bit away, so he had time for a short nap. Izuku's nap was plagued with the thoughts of Iida being cut down by the Hero Killer, Stain. Eventually, he settled for playing on his phone as he waited for his destination to come into view. Finally, it did and Izuku made his way through the city.

It took a bit of searching to find the building he was told to find, but it was a simple building a couple mile from the center of the city. The building itself didn't stand out much except for the moving van in front of it. Izuku walked up the stairs leading to the building and went inside.

As he made his way through the building, he came into a room that was almost completely empty. Suddenly, Izuku felt a wave of hostility. Ducking quickly, Izuku saw a blur fly over his head and dropped his case rolling out of the room and assuming a fighting stance. The direction the blur went was consumed with dust as it crashed into the wall.

"I thought you would be able to dodge that; but just in case, I held back a bit." The blur said as it emerged from the dust. "I'm the rabbit hero, Miruko, welcome to hell, newbie." Miruko said with a feral smile on her face. Izuku focused on Miruko. You could tell what her quirk was simply from the mutations on her. And her muscles were ridiculously toned. Izuku could tell it was not for show either due to the hole currently revealing the hallway behind Miruko.

"Thanks for having me!" Izuku grinned.

"Now, I'll explain a few things. Try and keep up or I'm sending you back to UA." Izuku nodded as Miruko continued. "You'll be under me for this week, so you'll operate as I see fit. That means you answer to me and all your actions are my responsibility. That also means I'm going to be trying to show you the ropes because I was impressed by your Sports Festival performance. Any questions before we get started?"

Izuku paused for a moment before he replied, "Is this your usual office space? It looks a bit run down." Izuku inquired "And also, get started with what?"

"This isn't my office. It's a building I got special permission from the city to use for the week. And the second answer is-" Miruko interrupted herself by shooting forward yet again and attacking Izuku this time forcing him back into the large-scale training room. "I'm beating the softness out of you." Miruko came forward again. None of her attacks were close to landing, but Izuku soon realized his fighting style was being taken advantage of. This was proven true when Miruko smashed her leg down on top of Izuku.

It kicked up another cloud of dust, but when it cleared Izuku was using his forearms to block along with a pair of flaming arms for support. "Jeez, is this really teaching me anything?" Izuku grunted out as he held Miruko up.

"It's teaching me if I can take you out on patrol with me or if I need to leave you here." Miruko called back as she swung her other leg forward, breaking Izuku's guard. He slid back and Miruko came forward suddenly, leg pulled back for a kick. Izuku prepared to launch a counter.

'Iai Chop: Fir-' Izuku suddenly felt a change in the intent of the kick. 'Shit, she's not joking. She'll kill me if I hold back.' Adjusting his positioning slightly, Izuku prepared a more powerful counter. 'Seventh Form: Sun Wheel.' The attacks collided, sending Miruko upwards and Izuku backwards. Miruko easily adjusted her positioning and landed on her feet.

"I see. So, you can sense when people get serious too and make quick and effective judgements to counter. You have a good head on your shoulders, but what I want to bring out of you is the killer instinct you had against the business girl." Izuku looked at Miruko wearily as his instincts calmed. "For now, you'll be good enough to take on patrol around the city. Go get changed and be ready to go. Down the hall and to the left is a bathroom to change in."

"Yes, ma'am," Izuku replied as he grabbed his case and headed down the hall. He found the bathroom and got changed quickly. He had spent a couple days working with Hatsume to finish the support gear and now was the chance for it to all come together. Izuku exited the bathroom and made his way to the front entrance.

"Looks fancy. Are you sure you can fight in it?" Miruko asked. It was a fair question. Izuku's costume now consisted of a full suit with a green shirt and black tie. The suit was covered on his shoulders with Izuku's fire coat from his first costume. And included a set of white gloves over both hands. Izuku replied with a nod.

"From now on, you have permission to use your quirk to keep up with me until further notice. Got it?" Izuku nodded as Miruko made her way down the street. Suddenly, Miruko took off running down an alley and then in a couple of jumps she was a building away. Izuku ignited to follow behind her quickly. It was sudden, but she hadn't gone fast enough to completely disappear from his sight. And eventually she leapt down from another building ahead of Izuku.

When Izuku came to a stop at the roof of the building, three thugs had already been dispatched. And Miruko was placing a call to the police to come pick them up. Izuku stood behind her as she interacted with the officers who responded and then continued down the way. Miruko made another turn and then her ears twitched again, and she took off like a bullet. This time Izuku thought he was better prepared, but she went even faster than the first time. This time she was stopping a bank robber mid heist as Izuku arrived.

This continued for a couple more hours. As Izuku began to catch up, Miruko would increase her speed even more. Eventually though, she allowed them to stop for a break. "We'll eat and then call it for the day. Good job keeping up." Izuku was surprised by the kindness with food, but he was quickly snapped back to reality as they returned.

It was a training session that saw Izuku clash with the rabbit hero. Izuku found himself being overwhelmed by the hero's power consistently. Izuku jumped back breathing ragged from effort. "Maybe you winning the sports festival was luck. I'm not really impressed." Miruko chided as she circled Izuku. She hadn't made any critical hits, but he hadn't landed a single blow.

Izuku focused and called his matoi out from a pocket in his fire coat. Sending them forward quickly, Izuku sent them around Miruko to attack from different angles. This forced Miruko to avoid them by dodging to the side and suddenly Miruko focused trying to make her way towards Izuku. As she was pushed around the room by the matoi, she suddenly found herself in front of Izuku ready to land another attack.

'Snap' And suddenly, Miruko was blown away by fire and sent tunneling back towards the wall and out into the connected hallway. She grinned as she looked up and Izuku was in front of her, matoi held just inches from her face.

"Impressive. It took a bit to get it out of you, but there is some fight in you, I suppose. I'm impressed as it was definitely strong for a first year. I have to ask though, what are those tools?" Miruko inquired.

"The first are special gloves designed to create a spark. It's less work on myself to manipulate existing fire than creating a new one. The others are matoi that I use for ranged combat that needs more force."

Miruko nodded as she got up and stretched her shoulders before responding. "What about that technique that you used at the sports festival then?"

"It was something my quirk can do, but do you see the marks around my eyes?" Miruko nodded, questioningly looking around Izuku's eyes. "These show how much I can use that technique the fuller they are. Currently, it's around half so I could barely use it for half the time in I did in the sports festival."

Miruko nodded with understanding. "Smart not to rely on such an unreliable power. Anything else then?"

"I have three more similar powers, but they're harder to explain the markings for so I keep them wrapped up. My back and my entire right arm are usually covered." Miruko nodded once more before deciding. "We'll get you into better shape because you've got potential. Maybe you'll even be able to put up a good fight."

Izuku grinned. "By the end of this internship, we won't even be in the same playing field!" Izuku declared confidently. Miruko stared him down and smiled for a moment. It looked as though the markings around his eye had moved a bit more to fill, but that was a tomorrow problem.

And so Izuku's internship with Miruko came into full swing. The next day saw Izuku and Miruko getting up early to exercise. Miruko had brought in equipment that she used to help build and keep muscle. And from the early morning until just before noon, they worked out like that. Around noon, Miruko once again told Izuku to suit up and they went on patrol around the city.

Today though, Izuku was much quicker and decisive in his movements. He ended up becoming something more similar to Miruko's shadow. "Listen, you can support me in fighting villains, but you don't have the authority to do such things by yourself as an intern." Izuku nodded as he continued to follow Miruko. Suddenly, Miruko changed directions and Izuku followed swiftly.

This time Izuku got to watch how Miruko operated in close combat. There were about eight men involved in a small brawl. People were starting to run away as Miruko quickly knocked two of the men unconscious. Izuku followed suit also dispatching two of the men quickly. The remaining four were quickly defeated by Miruko in one move as Izuku did his best to take in as much as he could from her experience.

That night after they returned from patrol, Miruko once again insisted on sparring in order to gain more experience against a stronger opponent. And so, they began again. Though this time, Izuku noted that more of Miruko's power and speed was on display as compared to their first fight. Another thing Izuku quickly became aware of was the speed and precision that Miruko dodged with, easily evading some of the attacks Izuku had previously used. And eventually it got late enough that Miruko called the training session for the night. Neither of them had landed any significant strikes though.

The next day saw a similar patter emerge, but while they were out on patrol Miruko struck up a conversation for once. "You're definitely strong, so why is it that you felt you needed to intern with me? At this point you're just missing experience and you could definitely fight against almost anyone."

Izuku thought about it for a moment before he responded, "I felt like the things that I wanted to learn could only be learned from you. You're a hero specializing in combat so it's polishing my strengths and getting a different angle to look at my weaknesses. Besides, you're one of the few heroes I actually look up to these days." Izuku felt like Miruko fiercely attacked his weaknesses and he was forced to close them up quickly or admit defeat.

Miruko suddenly took off. "Keep up then newbie or you won't learn a thing from me!" Izuku was probably mistaken, but he thought he saw a soft smile on her face. Which was quickly replaced with a maniacal grin as they made their way through the city, putting villains away even quicker than before.

Izuku and Miruko finished the day with more sparring. This time Miruko brought even more intensity, allowing her killing intent to show severely which forced Izuku to fight at his full power. Though he ultimately lost and was rendered unconscious.

When Izuku awoke the next morning, he couldn't feel any of the injuries he felt the previous night. And Miruko was dressed in her hero costume ready for patrol. "I let you sleep in since you managed so well yesterday but pack your bags and get in costume. We're making our way to Hosu to find the hero killer!"


	22. Chapter 22

Izuku sat across from Miruko on the train ride over. The section they were sitting on was surrounded by prying eyes, excited to see Miruko and the Sports Festival champion. And for a while it was tolerable until most of the train had heard and they were being hounded for photos and autographs.

"We're on official business. Leave." Miruko eventually demanded, dispersing the crowd. Izuku was impressed at how fast they all scattered. Once they were alone, Miruko handed him an earpiece. "This is to allow you to stay in contact with me on this frequency. We'll divide the city and scout. Notify me if you see the hero killer or find a lead to him." Izuku agreed and accepted the device, planting it in his right ear.

"How long do you think it'll take to get to Hosu?" Izuku inquired. Truthfully, a nap sounded amazing right now if he had the time for it.

"It'll be a few hours. We'll be there just before the sun goes down. The hero killer, from what we know, is more likely to strike at night when he can find isolated heroes." Izuku acknowledged the statement as he watched the views stream by the window. Eventually, the scenery allowed him to drift off to sleep.

Izuku's nap was suddenly ended a bit outside of Hosu as he sensed a hostile presence approaching. "Miruko!" Miruko's ears were standing on edge as she also seemed to realize the attack was approaching. Then there was a crash and a deep rumble as smoke filled into their section of the train. Miruko reacted quickly rising from her seat and sprinting towards the disturbance.

Izuku followed equally swiftly and was shocked to see what had caused the disturbance. "Miruko, that's one of those Nomu things." Izuku shouted as Miruko came forward and kicked the Nomu in the chest, sending it flying out of the car. With that solved, Izuku inhaled the flames in the area to prevent them from spreading.

"What about it?" Miruko asked as she prepared to jump after the Nomu which had already made its way back into Hosu and disappeared.

"It's hard to beat. And doesn't have any free thoughts, so the League of Villains is also most likely here." Miruko nodded and took off after the Nomu towards the city. Izuku also quickly followed, flying towards the city before he saw Miruko stop on a building. Izuku landed beside her and saw the city of Hosu in flames.

"From what I just picked up, there are unconfirmed reports of Nomu in the city. Not to mention the hero killer is somewhere here too. We'll be busy tonight for sure." Miruko stated as she called in to see what heroes were in the city and combating the Nomu. Izuku himself took a moment to survey the city. The Nomu seemed to all be congested in one area to attack. This left a small portion of the city nearly unaffected.

"Deku, there's a report in from Manual that one of your classmates went missing shortly before the attack started." Izuku was surprised that Iida had run off by himself but realized that it most likely meant the hero killer had been found. Izuku quickly decided that he would locate them.

"Miruko, I'll go after him and we'll come back to help fight the Nomu." Miruko looked hesitant at first before she looked at Izuku. His eyes were more focused than normal, most likely from the intensity of the situation. Because of that, she relented.

"Fine, I authorize you to use your quirk as you see fit until all threats in Hosu are dispatched. I'll take the heat for whatever happens later." Miruko called as she took off towards where some of the heroes were struggling with a Nomu. Izuku also took off quickly, heading into the quieter directions of the city. There wasn't much to go on besides the fact that the hero killer avoided groups and the spotlight, but it sounded the most reasonable to Izuku.

As he flew over the city, he saw that as he went, he saw fewer and fewer civilians. Most likely from the evacuation orders issued by the cities' police department. As Izuku continued to fly though, he picked up on a faint amount of killing intent and turned to head towards it. The killing intent continued to grow as he got closer until it was consumed by a larger more malicious presence.

Izuku made an 'ok' sign with his hand as he picked up the pace flying in the direction. Suddenly from the corner of his eye, Izuku saw an injured hero and brought himself to a swift stop. Izuku landed and ran into the alley where he saw a familiar suit of armor with a blade held above a head of blue hair.

Izuku felt a deep rage run through his body as he looked at the hero killer who had yet to take note of him. Burn marks covered Izuku's body as his flames compressed into a small ball. The hero killer took note and jumped back swiftly putting a greater distance between himself and Izuku.

"Sorry, that was unprofessional of me letting my killer intent just spill out like that." Izuku commented as the burn marks retracted. He walked down the alleyway calmly as he began taking note of the situation. "I take it you're the infamous hero killer?" Izuku inquired as he came to step in front of Iida

The hero killer also regained his composure as he realized it wasn't a hero. "I am indeed, Stain. Now move child, I need to purge the world of these two fakes. Don't meddle." Stain took an offensive stance as he held his blade towards Izuku. Izuku didn't falter as he watched Stain's actions carefully.

"Sorry, I can't do that. I'm getting both of them out of here alive." Stain seemed to become irritated before he relaxed his stance a bit more.

"If we clash, the weaker of us will be killed." Izuku stayed focused as Stain said these words though he could feel that Stain was ready to kill them all.

"Don't get in my way, Midoriya. I'm going to kill that bastard!" Iida called from the ground behind him.

"Are you really willing to die to protect that? The hero world will be better off without that brat." Stain chided.

"Sorry but as his class rep, he's my responsibility. We'll be leaving here alive." Stain had seemingly heard enough as he burst forward suddenly. Izuku was surprised by how quickly Stain was moving off the walls in the alley as he made his approach. Stain closed the gap and was suddenly met with a shoe holding his blade back. Stain was surprised and was suddenly met with a kick to the face sending him towards the wall and disabling him temporarily.

While Stain was impaired, Izuku turned and grabbed Iida and the hero in the alley and took off away from Stain. "Midoriya! What are you doing!?" Iida yelled as Izuku took off into the streets. Izuku went a bit farther before he leaned Iida and the pro against the wall.

"I can't fight him freely with you guys behind me. So, it's better to run at the moment than risk one of you getting killed." Izuku called back. "Who are you?" Izuku asked the hero.

"I'm Native, a pro hero." Izuku nodded, satisfied with the answer as he began to hear more noise. Focusing, he could hear the patter of boots on a rooftop, but also the running and screaming of people. Suddenly two people turned the corner, both with mobile cameras attached to their bodies as two Nomu came crashing around the corner after them. Simultaneously, Izuku took note of Stain who had come down from the rooftops after them.

"It was a smart decision to run from me child, but it was your own bad luck that has brought you into this situation." Stain remarked as he prepared to attack again.

"What do you mean bad luck? I'm right where I need to be. I'm gonna save everyone here!" Izuku declared as he called forth his flames and grabbed the two men bringing them over quickly to where he had Iida and Native propped up. "You all stay here. I'll finish up and get you all out of here." Izuku told them.

As the Nomu and Stain focused on Izuku, Izuku reached for his earpiece. "Miruko, I'm surrounded by Stain and two Nomu. Watch for flames for my locat-" Was the last message Izuku managed before one of the Nomu swung and Izuku's earpiece came free from the wind pressure. Izuku pushed the first Nomu back with his flames and focused on the task ahead of him.

Izuku brought out two of his matoi and brought them to the ready facing them towards Stain. He then turned and faced the two Nomu whose muscles were contracted and ready to attack. Stain came at Izuku first, and Izuku replied by batting him away with the matoi. He also caught both of the Nomu with his flames which he had morphed into arms.

"Iai Chop, Form Seven: Sun Wheel" Izuku burned the two Nomu back as he readjusted himself to dodge a knife thrown by Stain. He caught it with his off hand before returning it to block another knife and taking a deep breath. The Nomu were also closing in and were quickly sent away again as Izuku blew fire into them.

His onlookers were impressed by the sight of Izuku maintaining an advantage against not only the two Nomu, but also against Stain. The two men who had joined the group had adjusted their cameras to get a full view of the fight as it continued. Iida and Native, though impressed, also felt ashamed that they couldn't offer any assistance.

"You go so far to protect them. That personifies a great hero. You are similar to All Might in that regard, but these fakes must be punished for society to understand." Stain bellowed as he continued his attack.

"All Might may have those great boy scout morals, but you can't compare every hero to him. Especially not a first year on an internship." Izuku called as he continued to counter both the Nomu and Stain. Izuku could sense that all three of them were going for the kill which made it easier for him to predict and react to their attacks.

Izuku flung Stain back as he sent the Nomu flying with another chop. Suddenly, Izuku felt Stain change his targets. And as he watched Stain rebounded off the wall and began heading for the small group Izuku had guaranteed to protect. Izuku shot forward at an angle to intercept Stain. And as Stain closed in on his targets with a wicked look on his face, he was suddenly grabbed by his boot.

Izuku flipped Stain over himself and onto the ground where he pinned Stain's wrists with his feet. Stain took note that the air around Izuku had suddenly changed, similar to when they were in the alley. He could even see the burn marks returning. Izuku was facing towards the two charging Nomu with only a small ball of compressed flames. From Iida's perspective, Izuku looked furious.

"Go to hell!" Izuku shouted as he unleashed the flames from the palm of his hand. The flames were bright for a moment and then suddenly dimmed. Iida looked around Izuku only to find the Nomu and part of the street to have completely disappeared.

Izuku turned his glowing eyes back to Stain who had been dumbfounded at the sudden display of power. Before Stain could regain his composure, he found himself with all of his limbs wrapped by flames. And then a sudden pressure to the back of his neck saw Stain fall unconscious.

"That should take care of everything for now." Izuku declared as he removed his flames from Stain. "Are all of you ok?" Izuku asked. The two people who had been running from the Nomu merely nodded as Iida and Native found themselves once again capable of movement.

Iida passed Izuku and made his way towards Stain, his eyes covering his face. He reached towards Stain's blade when he suddenly found two matoi circling around him, one dangerously close to his neck. "And what do you think you're doing?" Izuku asked as Iida turned to face him sword in hand.

"I'm going to take revenge on him for my brother!" Iida shouted as he turned suddenly.

"Is this the type of heroes the Iida family produces?" Izuku called back. He had adjusted the matoi to catch any attacks, but he wanted to see Iida's answer. "If you do this, you're no better than Stain."

Iida stiffened and despite Native being a pro, he elected to stay out of the matter. "My brother was a fine hero. He didn't deserve to have his career ended so suddenly by this monster." Iida called back on the brink of tears.

"I know he didn't, but he also doesn't deserve to have his little brother labeled a murderer," Izuku responded. "You're right to be upset, but this won't fix anything. It's just pointless revenge and in the end, you'll only hurt yourself the most." By this point, Iida dropped the blade and had knelt down in front of Stain.

Suddenly, a familiar face came running around the corner. "Are there any injuries?" Todoroki asked as he approached the scene. Izuku recalled his matoi as he surveyed the area.

"Iida and Native are injured, but other than that everyone appears to be alright. Did Miruko send you?" Izuku responded and Todoroki nodded. "Well we captured Stain and defeated the Nomu who attacked over here." Izuku stated. Todoroki raised an eyebrow, only seeing Stain unconscious. "The Nomu are kind of spread out now." Izuku answered the unspoken question.

Todoroki then pulled some tape from a pouch on his side and the small group made their way towards where Endeavour and Miruko were finishing off the last of the Nomu invading. As they made their way, Izuku and Todoroki made pleasant conversation as Iida stared at their backs. Turning the corner, they came into view of the two pros who looked to have just finished.

"We're back!" Izuku announced as he approached. Endeavour seemed to glance over the group before calling Todoroki back to him while the rest of the group approached Miruko. While they were distracted, a winged Nomu that hadn't been defeated arose. It flew towards Miruko who was pushed over by Izuku. And he was suddenly flying into the sky.

The grip of the Nomu was fierce as it sought to crush whatever it had grabbed and took off into the sky. Izuku was slowly being crushed; but as he was about to counterattack, he noticed two people approaching. Miruko and Stain were both flying at the Nomu at full speed. Stain stabbing the Nomu and Miruko kicking it, snapping it's neck.

All four fell to the ground and suddenly Stain was free again. And Stain's presence was crippling to the heroes present. Because Izuku had held back, Stain was still in prime condition to finish off the remaining heroes. But he had landed too close to Izuku and suddenly both Stain and Izuku were collapsed on the ground.

"What happened?" One of the heroes asked.

"It's my new technique, I stopped time for an instant and knocked Stain out before he could attack." Izuku replied. Most of the heroes present looked dumbfounded at the information, but Miruko could only smile and laugh. "By the way since you have enough energy to laugh, I need you to carry me. I can't move anymore." Izuku called out to the hero. And soon after Miruko had grabbed him, Izuku passed out from exhaustion.


	23. Chapter 23

Izuku woke up the next morning to the smell of disinfectant filling the room. His body was sore and heavy so he couldn't move as freely as he would like at the moment. The sun was still high in the sky which meant he hadn't slept too long. Looking around, he could see Iida sitting in the bed across from him looking out the window. Izuku cleared his throat and Iida turned his direction before looking away again.

"So, how are your injuries?" Izuku asked casually. He didn't feel the need in making Iida feel worse than he already did.

"I have a few cuts. The injuries to my arms were the most severe, but I should be released tomorrow if all of my tests come back alright." Iida responded. Izuku hummed, taking in the information before looking out the window. Though the city may have been in peril the night before, it seemed the damage was contained enough that the city could quickly return to normal.

"I want to apologize for last night. If it wasn't for you, I would have brought a great shame upon my family." Iida said as he raised himself from his hospital bed. He staggered over and bowed at a full right angle in front of Izuku. "Thank you so much, Midoriya!" Izuku stared at him for a moment before he ushered for Iida to get up.

"Don't mention it. It was nothing." Izuku responded, but he quickly amended his statement. "If you really want to thank me, don't make the same mistake again." Iida seemed to think on the words for a moment before bowing again and making his way back to his bed and having a seat. The two then began a comfortable conversation, free of the stresses of the previous night.

"By the way, what was that technique you used to stop Stain? Was it similar to what you used against me in the battle trials?" Iida inquired.

"It's my take on Maki's quirk. I can stop time for a moment and attack." Izuku stated. Iida looked dumfounded for a moment, but before he could speak Izuku continued. "It's not long and I could only do it because I had stored extra flames while looking for you. I had an excess to spare."

Iida took the information and his face contorted a bit. "You really are a fine hero, Midoriya." He finally settled on and the two sat in a comfortable silence until they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Todoroki entered the room with a small gift basket in each hand. He sat one on each of their bedside tables before pulling up a seat next to Izuku's bed.

"Thank you for the gift baskets." Izuku and Iida spoke simultaneously. Todoroki merely offered a simple nod in return before he returned to silence. The ensuing silence was a bit awkward before Todoroki chose to speak again.

"My mother suggested them. They have fruit." Todoroki offered. Izuku took the opportunity to open his gift basket and picked out three apples and tossed two around the room to his classmates before partaking in his own. As they continued to talk, the interaction began to become a bit easier and less stiff. And before long they had even managed to crack a few jokes.

Then the room door slid open and Miruko walked in followed by Manual. Miruko had a slightly annoyed frown on her face but perked up when Izuku threw her an apple. "Don't get to comfortable. You have a visitor." Miruko warned. Suddenly a tall man with the head of a dog entered the room. "This is the chief of police, Kenji Tsuragamae."

At the announcement, Todoroki and Iida immediately stood up to greet the chief. Through his exhaustion, Izuku could only make it to the edge of the bed before the chief told him he didn't need to stand. "You young men are the ones who brought Stain to the heroes correct, woof?" Izuku was taken off guard by the woof but nodded. The chief took this as his opportunity to continue.

"As you may well know the profession of hero is defined by the training and the license in order to act in the best interest of the city. Other actions are vigilantism and must be treated as such. By engaging the hero killer, he sustained serious wounds as well as burn marks." Izuku glared for a moment but Todoroki spoke up.

"But they had to get involved. If they hadn't Native and Iida and those other people would have died." Todoroki retorted.

"So, breaking the law is justified as long as the result is good?" The chief scoffed.

"Heroes are supposed to save people." Todoroki called back defiantly.

"And that is why you're not heroes yet. Seriously, what are the school and Endeavor teaching you?" Before Todoroki could respond again, there was a significant rise in temperature in the room and all eyes fell on Izuku. He quickly rose from his bed and came face to face with the police chief. The look in his eyes screaming murder.

"That's enough of that. If you came to insult us, then leave. Otherwise any business you have is with me. I'm the only one who fought the hero killer." The room seemed to still at those words and everyone was sitting on edge awaiting the police chief's response. The chief himself sighed as he got his words together before responding.

"Be that as it may, a video was confiscated showing you fighting against the hero killer and Nomu. If used against you, the video could easily turn into a lawsuit, However, Stain has refused that option. He said and I quote 'I'd rather not be a stone in the way of a promising hero.' The gentlemen also refused their recording back saying they have no need for it. Because of that we will also be cutting a few corners to keep you all on the track to becoming proper pros." Iida seemed to deflate with the tension in the room, but Todoroki still seemed guarded about the issue.

"The arrest credit is being given to Endeavor, but both Miruko and Manual will be facing punishment to make up for leaving this issue to you children. Despite all that, I would like to say thank you. Despite not receiving credit, I am truly proud of the work you did, woof." With his piece said the chief left and suddenly all eyes were on Izuku.

"I may have made a mistake taking you. You were really going to fight the police chief." Miruko joked.

"If it happened, it had to happen. He was a dick." Izuku responded nonchalantly as he made his way back to his bed and found another piece of fruit to eat. Iida still seemed to be a concerned with the prospect, but Todoroki also made his way over to the gift basket taking a piece of fruit. And eventually, even Miruko plopped down and took a bite of her apple. Izuku eventually turned to ask her a question. "So, what did you give up keeping me out of trouble."

"Just a fine on my pay for a little bit. And I owe the safety commission some kind of favor." Miruko responded. Beside them, Iida was having a similar moment with Manual.

"I'm so sorry-" Iida began, but Manual chopped his forehead.

"I understand. Just promise not to make the same mistake and we're even. It was good having you here. I know you'll be a fine hero." Manual replied before making his way out and into the hallway.

Todoroki left soon after saying that he needed to finish out his internship and learn what he could from his father before the week ended. And similarly, Izuku was also cleared to leave and went back with Miruko to her temporary residence. Overall, he was still tired though and quickly drifted off to sleep on the ride back.

When Izuku awoke, he silently followed Miruko back to the agency. And before he could lay down again, he was stopped. "We're going to have a full day tomorrow so rest up and recover. I won't go easy on you." Izuku smiled and nodded back as he headed off to bed.

The next morning Izuku awoke earlier than usual, even earlier than Miruko, and decided to get to work. In the quiet of the morning, Izuku made his way to the training room and practiced. A simple stretching warmup and then Izuku made his way into practicing simple kicks. It was a bit different from how he normally practiced, focusing solely on his legs to make them stronger.

It continued until the sun came up and Miruko came down. "I thought you were out getting me into more trouble. But I see you're hard at work already. Are you ready for weight training or are you too tired?" Izuku smiled as they made their way to the training equipment and worked until close to noon where they ate and went out on patrol.

It was a slow day since the hero killer incident had just recently been resolved. Several of the heroes who had relocated for the hunt of the killer had made their way back to their cities which allowed for more heroes able to respond to each situation. And so, the day ended with another sparring session.

This time they were both coming with a greater intensity than the previous days. Matching blow for blow. Miruko seemed to be hunting him even more ferocious than before and Izuku matched her stride for stride. The training room suffered as well, holes being opened in walls and burns dragging across the room and to the ceiling. Miruko noticed something as the fighting continued. Izuku's fighting style was tighter than it had been when he first arrived. He looked and moved sharper using his whole body to counter, taking strain off of specific limbs and allowing him to move better.

"You've gotten stronger in these few days. You must be some kind of genius!" Miruko called as she bounded off the walls to attack. Izuku focused on dodging and tracking her before he responded.

"I'm not a genius. I'm just dedicated to my craft. I worked really hard to get here, don't discredit it!" Izuku called as he landed a solid kick against Miruko, sending her sliding a bit before she grabbed his extended leg and flung him into the wall.

"We'll call it there. I'm glad your time wasn't wasted." Izuku nodded and he pulled himself out of the wall. Despite having improved slightly, there was only so much he could evolve within a week. However, Miruko had showed him the key to be a successful pro and continuously growing stronger.

The next morning Miruko saw Izuku out and to the train station. Izuku was quite excited to go back and see how his classmates had improved, but he'd be lying if he said he wouldn't miss working with Miruko. "Listen, Miruko, thank you for taking me in and showing me the ropes this week. I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble in my week here. It seems to follow me."

Miruko sighed as she heard the apology. "I knew it was too good to be true that you'd leave without apologizing. Listen, if you did everything perfectly all the time you wouldn't be human. And if you're worried about the money, just send me your first few checks when you go pro. Here's my number in case you ever want to work with me again." Miruko smiled as Izuku's eyes began to steam a little bit. He gave Miruko a quick hug before running off to his train and popping his head out the window.

"One day for sure Miruko!" Izuku called as his train rode off into the distance. Miruko stayed for a while before going her own separate way. She had paperwork to fill out and a meeting with the public safety commission. But overall, Miruko considered teaming up with Izuku again. It may have gone against her policy but there were always exceptions to the rules

Meanwhile, Izuku used his phone to check in on some of the latest news on his way home. What he saw was surprising. It was video and article after article written about Stain. It covered his ideology in pushing fake heroes out and making way for more heroes like All Might.

Apparently, they had found his residence and found all sorts of information. It was also similarly being reported that Stain was working with the League of Villains, which sounded like a stretch to Izuku given the Nomu situation. He focused specifically on an article that claimed to have a transcript of him explaining his ideology to the police.

'Reading through, I understand where he's coming from. It's hard not to these days, especially with what I know about Endeavour now. But still All Might's heroics are only possible because of his ridiculous speed and strength. There's more to heroics than that. Heroes are still people.' Izuku allowed his thoughts on the matter to carry him well back to the dorm.


	24. Chapter 24

Izuku arrived at the dorm late that night and greeted those who were in the common room briefly before making his way to his room quietly. It had been a long last two days between everything that had happened and ultimately the rest was well deserved. Izuku was asleep by the time he hit his pillow and the next morning came even quicker. Izuku found himself alone as he did his usual morning run around the campus. This time though Izuku made time to make his way to the gym on campus to continue some of the exercises he had learned during his internship to continue improving his body. Before it got too late though Izuku made his way back to his dorm to get ready for class.

Arriving, he was still fairly early, coming in shortly behind both the astute Iida and Yaoyorozu who looked extremely upset. Izuku didn't ponder over it long before he made his way to her desk. "Hey, is everything alright?" Izuku inquired carefully. He wasn't sure where the issue occurred. Whether she was still down from the sports festival or a terrible internship. Regardless, he felt compelled to help his classmate.

Yaoyorozu was initially shocked by his sudden approach, but quickly shook it off and gave him a smile. "It's nothing. I am simply a bit tired from the internship." She replied. Izuku could see how forced the words seemed, but he would respect that she didn't want to talk about it. Izuku hummed to himself as he made his way to his own seat and prepared for the first class of the day Slowly, all of his classmates began to file into the room. As the class filled the sporadic groups around the room, all conversed until it was close to class time and then promptly made their way to their seats.

As Mr. Aizawa prepared to address the class, his eyes came to a halt on Izuku, Todoroki, and Iida. Izuku was about to say something, but Mr. Aizawa spoke first. "I hope this past week has been enlightening for all of you and you've made a good impression. This is a necessary step in learning how to be a pro. Now onto class."

Compared to the speed of the internships, class seemed to slowly wade by and the day dragged on and on. Finally, near the end of the day they came to Foundational Hero Studies taught by All Might. The class made their way to the locker rooms and quickly changed into their costumes. As Izuku finished changing, he heard a whistle from behind him. He turned after he put his fireman coat over his shoulder to find Kaminari speaking.

"Is that a new costume?" Kaminari asked.

"Yea, it's a bit more resilient and covers more than my other costume. I can cut loose a bit more in this one." Kirishima also joined the conversation.

"It's super manly. It definitely suits you." Izuku thanked him and made his way out to the observation room where All Might told them to meet. This time All Might was wearing another model of his costume that Izuku couldn't quite place. But All Might cleared his throat before explaining the exercise.

"For this class, we'll be showing what you learned in your internships. It's a battle-race. There will be several one-point bots from the entrance exam scattered around the area. Your mission is to wait for my signal then make your way over to me as fast as possible by any means necessary. I will rank you on order of arrival." All Might said as he showed the groups on the board behind him.

All Might then made his way into the city. The groups seemed to be arranged at random yet again. The first group that would go would be Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Sero, Iida, and Izuku. They had all been assigned random spots and to Izuku personally this seemed like one of the tougher brackets to have been made, simply off of the mobility of each participant. Izuku took his spot and waited patiently for the signal and when it went off, he flew forward.

He made his way through the maze of building and pipes in what he believed to be the fastest route eliminating any robots that crossed his path in the process. If he listened closely enough, he could hear Sero's tape and Iida's engines firing off in the background. He couldn't see them, but assuming that All Might was a certain distance away from all of them it made sense. Izuku flew up quickly closing in on where the signal originated. He landed close to All Might, followed shortly after by Sero and Iida and then Tokoyami.

Yaoyorozu arrived lastly looking a bit worse for wear. It wasn't a bad time considering the group she was placed in. However, she seemed to become more upset by coming in last and made her way back to the observation room in silence. The next group was sent out as swiftly as the last arrived, consisting of Bakugo, Hagakure, Koda, Jiro, and Asui.

Izuku watched carefully on the monitor to watch how each had improved in their internship. Jiro and Asui looked noticeably sharper from their experiences. And even Koda and Hagakure had showed some improvements, but Bakugo looked to have stagnated a bit in his week. Thinking back, Izuku couldn't remember who Bakugo even interned with. He looked over his shoulder and spotted Kirishima.

"Do you know who Bakugo spent the last week with, Kirishima?" Izuku asked. Kirishima seemed to ponder a moment before he responded.

"I think it was Best Jeanist." Kirishima said. Izuku nodded and turned back to the screen to continue watching. From what he knew, Best Jeanist was definitely a good hero, but Bakugo didn't seem to gain much from his time with him. At least not in the sense of improving his quirk or combat. Despite his stagnation though, Bakugo still managed to finish first. The race seemed tighter than many thought was possible for him, however.

Izuku also closely observed the remaining races. The next group up was Ojiro, Shoji, Uraraka, Ashido, and Kaminari. None of them were well known for their quirks being versatile so their classmates were surprised by the sudden improvements. One of the one's Izuku was most surprised about was the increased combat prowess of Uraraka. She seemed to glide across the robots.

In the end, her improved combat earned her second place behind only Shoji. Next was Ojiro and finally Ashido and Kaminari came in at around the same time. They were quickly ushered in and made way for the last group which consisted of Aoyama, Mineta, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Sato.

This race actually ended up being quite underwhelming. Todoroki took a dominant first place, using both halves of his quirk. His fire seemed especially strong to have been so underused for so much of his life. The rest of the group came in as quickly as they could after with Aoyama coming in last from the stomachache his quirk gave him.

All Might came back to give a quick spiel about the results before he ran off again at the end of class. From what Izuku could tell, he seemed to be steaming as he made his way to the door but had quickly disappeared around a corner as it closed. With All Might gone, the class made their ways back to the locker room to change and go back to the dorm for the day.

While they were changing though, Mineta had found another peephole to try and look through.

"Imagine it! On the other side of this wall is a whole new world waiting for us to experience." Mineta cried as he closed in on the wall. He was suddenly caught by a foot from behind and held against the wall. It was Izuku who was finishing putting on his uniform.

Izuku grabbed Mineta's case with his flames, and held Mineta by his head, making his way back to the classroom. "If you're a shit man, you can never be a good hero." Izuku chided as he made his way down the halls. His mind was drawn to Stain at his own comment and Izuku scoffed. He dropped Mineta off in the classroom gently and put his own case up before making his way back to the dorm.

It was a quiet evening and Izuku found himself working on homework until his shoulders were stiff. The sun was still up so Izuku had a thought and sent a quick text before changing and making his way to one of the on-campus gyms. Izuku took a water from his bag and sat in front of the gym and waited for his guest to arrive.

"You look stupid down there." A voice called from Izuku's peripherals. Izuku glanced to the side before picking up his bag and walking into the gym. Maki followed closely behind with her own gym bag. "So why did you call me out here?" Maki asked.

"Izuku led her to a room covered in mats. "We'll be sparring without our quirks in here so get ready." Izuku dropped his bag in a corner and took off his shoes before sitting in the middle of the room, warming up. Maki dropped her bag off in another corner and opposite from Izuku.

They stood and took their stances. To the outside observer, the stances looked completely different, but both of them were built around the same principle. Izuku moved first moving swiftly to close the gap between them. Maki dodged to the side and they began to fight in earnest.

Once again, they found themselves at standstill after standstill because of how familiar they were with each other's fighting style. Izuku lashed out with a kick, but Maki checked the kick with her leg before striking violently with a punch, forcing Izuku backwards.

Izuku came to a stop and stared forward. "It's really unfortunate you keep your arms covered by windbreakers all the time. Nobody knows what they're getting into fighting you." Izuku quipped. Maki met the remark with a small laugh before she wiped her forehead. Maki took off her blazer to reveal a workout shirt and muscular arms. Izuku stared at the sheer definition of her arms and whistled. "Impressive." He remarked as he retook his stance.

They clashed again and again and eventually it was time for the gym to close. Maki and Izuku made their way out and made plans to continue training occasionally this semester. They parted ways and Izuku found Kirishima walking back to the 1-A dorms. Izuku jogged to catch up with him.

"Hey Kirishima, do you come to the gym often?" Izuku inquired as he came up behind Kirishima.

"Oh, Midoriya, yea I go to the gym almost every day." Kirishima responded. Izuku nodded as they matched paces and made conversation about the latest events in class. The two of them were on friendly enough terms, but they didn't talk often. Izuku was only really close with a few from his class, mainly Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki.

"You were in the gym with that Maki girl from the Sports Festival, right?" Kirishima asked as they continued their walk to the dorm. Izuku nodded, waiting to see where Kirishima would take this. "Do you think she could beat my hardening?" Kirishima asked. Izuku thought over it for a moment before he responded.

"It would take some effort, but she could break through. But if you only stayed on the defensive, she could definitely throw you out of the ring." Izuku said. Kirishima seemed to deflate at the answer. "She'd beat Bakugo and Todoroki easier than you at least." That seemed to give Kirishima some more confidence as he ran the rest of the way to the dorm.

Izuku eventually made his way to the dorm and fell straight in his bed asleep. The excitement of the internship had finally faded, and the class returned to normal. Izuku fell into a similar pattern of training and schoolwork. Sometimes, working out with Iida in the morning and sometimes working with Maki or Kirishima in the evenings.

Though he didn't let his increased training impact his schoolwork. He still maintained time to study and go over the work every day to make sure he learned it. It had been a habit since he was little to go over work thoroughly. And between school and all the extra work Izuku had put in, two weeks sailed past him without incident.

Until one day Mr. Aizawa came into the classroom with an announcement. "Remember final exams are coming up in a week. There will be both a written and physical portion." The class groaned at their homeroom teacher's announcement. He ignored them and left the room to leave them to their day. However, he suddenly slid his head back into the room. "I forgot to mention that whoever fails either portion will be taking remedial classes and will not allowed on the trip for everyone who does pass." With that final announcement, Aizawa left.

The class exploded into chaos. Kaminari and Ashido lay prostrate at Yaoyorozu's feet while several other members of the class also approached. "Please tutor us for the midterms!" Ashido and Kaminari yelled in almost perfect sync. Yaoyorozu looked overwhelmed and her face was flushed red as she watched the two.

"I'm sure you don't want my help! Someone else is definitely more qualified for the task." Yaoyorozu protested. Overhearing the argument, Izuku decided to interject.

"I doubt that. You ranked number one in the class on the midterm. And no offense but I'm sure you had room to spare. There is literally no one better." Izuku stated matter-of-factly. Yaoyorozu perked up at the compliment and quickly turned and accepted the flock of students.

"We can do study sessions in the common room of the dorm if you'd like every other day before the exam." Yaoyorozu declared. Kirishima made plans to study with Bakugo, but most of the class had made their reservation for Yaoyorozu's study session. Izuku found himself quite glad that no one asked him to study with him. He didn't want to confuse anybody with how he approached certain tasks.

The rest of the day flew by like a blur and Izuku found himself in the dorms studying that night. He decided to start with the subjects that would require the most work. But as he started to work through the problems, he figured out a better way to study and sent a text to Maki and Hatsume about all working together to study for their exams. They both responded yes and planned to meet and study the next day.

The next day was a weekend so after Izuku got morning training out of the way and ate breakfast, he made his way to the support course dorms. He found Maki and Hatsume waiting for him outside of the dorms. Instead of walking into the dorms, they picked up their things and directed him to the gym that he and Maki had been sparring in occasionally. The uneasy feeling he felt at their actions hit a head when they introduced their plan to him.

"We'll quiz you each day until you get fifty questions right each day. Every time you answer a question incorrectly, you'll either be attacked by me or be forced to stop one of Hatsume's experiments. We're fine subject wise, but you'll be using this to prepare for the heroics final. You'll need it."

Before Izuku could object, the first question flew out and he was so flustered that he could not answer in time. Soon after, he was struck by Maki for taking too long. And before he could recover, the next question flew out equally swiftly and Izuku's exam week began to speed away. Between his own training and the absolutely spartan study methods of Hatsume and Maki, Izuku felt more and more comfortable with the information by the day.

Later that week though at lunch, a critical question hit everyone's mind. "Does anyone know what we're doing for the practical exam?" Ashido and Kaminari were asking each table. It triggered the thought in Izuku's mind as well. For the most part, it seemed like Hatsume and Maki knew but refused to tell him what the exam would contain. While he was listening to Ashido and Kaminari converse, the 1-B rep approached his table.

"I see that some people in your class are worried about the exam. I heard from an upperclassman than the exam usually consists of fighting the robots in the entrance exam." Kendo offered. As she was about to stand up to leave, Izuku stopped her.

"I know someone who knows something about the exam. It's safe to assume that the exam is going to be dangerous. I'd assume, at minimum, we're fighting zero-pointers and at worse-" Izuku suddenly found himself staring at the wall of the hallway with Maki behind him. "So, I assume my guess is correct?" Izuku asked.

Maki only put a finger to her lips before walking down the hallway and waving. Izuku sighed thinking about which teachers he would prefer to fight. It honestly was not hard to rank how hard each teacher was to fight.

The day of the exams came and Izuku finished the exam in the latter half of the class. Though he wouldn't know it for a while, he tied with Iida for second on the written portion of the exam with Yaoyorozu taking first again. Overall, no one failed the exam. Immediately afterwards though, they were instructed to change into their hero costumes to prepare for the practical portion of the exam.

The class waited outside, and they were greeted by the teachers waiting for them. Some of the class made a move to voice their confusion before Mr. Aizawa spoke up. "For the final exam, we've changed the format from previous years. Due to the increased number of villain attacks, we thought an update to the exam was needed. You'll each be paired and fight against a teacher." Aizawa spoke in his usual tone.

"But there's only 9 teachers." Kaminari pointed out. Izuku looked into the sky and found what he was looking for easily.

"The tenth is-" Izuku began but was quickly interrupted.

"I AM HERE!" All Might called as he smashed into the ground, knocking up wind. The prospect of fighting All Might seemed to scare some of the class and then Mr. Aizawa brought up the class matchups.


	25. Chapter 25

The students stared ahead at the teachers with trepidation. The teachers stared back confidently. There was an unspoken communication between most of the class wondering who would have the unfortunate task of fighting All Might. In unison, the class all turned to stare at Izuku, praying that he could undertake the task. Mr. Aizawa cleared his throat before he pulled up a list to display the matchups to the class. They each searched for their names frantically to find which teacher they would be fighting. Izuku stared at who he would be fighting and sighed. He and Yaoyorozu would be fighting their homeroom teacher. Izuku glared at the list hoping if he looked long enough, he could fight a different teacher.

"Why do you look so troubled Mr. Midoriya." The principal chirped from his perch in Mr. Aizawa's scarf. Izuku made eye contact with Nedzu and a chill ran down his spine. The principal had always seemed to know more than he let on in Izuku's meetings with him.

"Honestly, I wanted to fight Mr. Aizawa the least. If I had any other teammate, I would just accept failure right now." The class seemed taken aback by Izuku's comment.

"I know you're strong, but at least it's not All Might." Uraraka said. Izuku shrugged, indifferently. All Might also seemed to be giving the stink eye to Izuku, but it was quickly broken up as the class was taken to a bus with each of their respective teachers. On Mr. Aizawa bus, he sat in the front while Izuku and Yaoyorozu made their way a bit back from him to talk about strategy.

"Do you have any ideas for beating Mr. Aizawa, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked as she glanced back and forth between her teammate and enemy. Izuku looked in his direction for a moment before he shook his head.

"Unfortunately, I have zero clue how to beat him. He's probably one of the most dangerous teachers to fight. The only thing I can do is rely on you." Izuku admitted as he leaned back. Yaoyorozu seemed to be overwhelmed by the task laid upon her, but Izuku tapped her shoulder. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not telling you to fight him by yourself, but whatever plan we make will need to hinge on you and your quirk."

Yaoyorozu sat for a moment in contemplation before she figured it out. "It's because he can stop me from creating, but can't erase a creation, right?" Izuku nodded as he began to think of how they would approach this.

"The first question is escaping or capturing? What do you think?" Izuku inquired

"I think capture would be our best option. Let me explain." Yaoyorozu and Izuku dove deep into their strategy to counter Aizawa's erasure. They talked as quietly as possible, but the faint glow from the back alerted Aizawa that they were preparing for him.

It wasn't too long before they arrived at the site of their exam, and Izuku and Yaoyorozu were left at the front of the city as the bus took Aizawa to another part of the city. The pair went over their strategy one more time before the signal went off and they made their way into the city. Izuku took off his coat and threw it at Yaoyorozu. "Since you're the crux of the plan you cannot lose your quirk. Use this to help create an opening."

They approached through the city slowly with Izuku taking the lead with a small fire in his hand while Yaoyorozu stayed behind him using his large fire coat as covering. There was still the faint glow of her creation being active behind him.

"Do you think this will actually work? I just threw this plan together." Yaoyorozu called from inside the fire coat.

"I think it's a good plan. The only thing I'm worried about is if I can catch him while you distract him. If I can't then just run." Suddenly, Izuku's fire went out and a scarf wrapped around the fire coat dragging Yaoyorozu back and slamming her into a fence directly behind her.

Just as quickly Mr. Aizawa sent out his scarf to wrap around Izuku, but Izuku dodged to the side and ran towards Aizawa. Izuku swung a fist forward, but Aizawa dodged using his capture weapon and continued his assault. From Izuku's perception, he could tell Aizawa was serious about taking him down. The exchanges were quick, but Aizawa had a clear advantage in hand to hand combat.

Izuku managed to parry what he could but he kept getting pushed back. Suddenly, he felt the familiar fire of his quirk and shot it forward quickly forcing Aizawa to dodge to the side while simultaneously gaining breathing room.

"You're not bad without your quirk but spelling out your strategy without knowing where I was, was a mistake. Especially not including your partner more in your plan." Mr. Aizawa lectured as he prepared to attack again. Izuku smirked for a moment before he glanced to the side. Aizawa reacted and turned back quickly when he saw no one was there.

In that instance, Izuku had already closed in a good deal and Aizawa responded by lashing out with a kick which seemed to strike Izuku right above his eye. It didn't stop Izuku from coming forward and for a moment Aizawa was nervous. "Don't you remember who I interned with, Mr. Aizawa? A kick like that doesn't have a chance of slowing me down." Izuku looked feral as blood dripped down the side of his face. Seeing the opening he created, Izuku grabbed Aizawa and tripped him. Slamming him into the pavement.

It didn't seem to faze Aizawa who quickly escaped Izuku and wrapped him in his capture weapon from beneath him. Aizawa dusted himself off as he stood up. The dust and force of the slam had forced his eyes closed, but he quickly reactivated it to prevent Izuku from escaping. He heard a noise behind him and turned quickly.

Yaoyorozu was prepared to activate her quirk from her hand. But Aizawa was going to beat her to the punch as he was already blinking, preparing to stop her. In an instant, a hand slid in front of Aizawa's eyes. And he found his left arm wrenched behind his back. This gave Yaoyorozu the chance to shoot the material forward. Because of the increased temperature from Izuku using his time stop, the material suddenly hardened around Aizawa and Izuku while Yaoyorozu produced handcuffs to put on Aizawa.

Once Aizawa was secure, Izuku was left free of the capture material Yaoyorozu had made. With his newfound freedom, Izuku slipped to the ground for a moment and sat. Yaoyorozu rushed to check on him but he merely held up a hand. "That's still so tiring, but I'll be alright." Aizawa seemed shocked by the sudden development before he realized he had been set up.

"So, from the beginning you planned to use yourself as a decoy while your teammate focused on capture. Impressive, but a risky gamble." Aizawa seemingly complimented. Yaoyorozu undid the handcuffs and helped Aizawa up. With the exam results decided, the three made their way to the bus which took them back to the campus.

They were then brought to the observation room where Recovery Girl, Uraraka, and Aoyama were already waiting. "Did you two win already?" Izuku asked as he walked into the room. Uraraka seemed to stiffen for a moment before responding.

"Yea, we were fighting Thirteen and I managed to catch her when she dragged me towards her." Uraraka replied. Izuku congratulated them both as he stood next to Recovery Girl.

"How's it looking so far, gran?" Izuku asked turning towards the screen. He hadn't really timed the fight with his teacher, but he didn't expect so few to be done.

"Several of your classmates have already finished their exams and are on their way here. From then on it will be their decision if they watch the remaining matches or if they go to the dorms." Izuku seemed to light up at the information.

"Does that mean so far everyone has passed?" Izuku asked excitedly. Recovery Girl shook her head before returning her attention to the monitor.

"Unfortunately, Mina Ashido, Denki Kaminari, Eijiro Kirishima, and Rikido Sato all failed. They missed the point of the exam and failed to analyze their situation. They were completely overwhelmed by their exam supervisor." Izuku thought carefully about the teachers they matched up with and saw the issues that may have occurred without proper planning. Izuku turned his head to watch the screen. He was greeted with an image of Midnight chasing Mineta. "This child also seems to be missing the point of being a hero. Maybe it isn't for him."

Izuku watched carefully as Midnight chased Mineta across the examination field. "Yea he doesn't seem like much at a glance. He's a pervert who only wants to get popular with girls, but he chose heroics to do it. I don't think anyone who would put their life on the line for their goals is that bad a person." As if he heard Izuku's statement, Mineta shot into action. Dodging Midnight's attack and trapping her and her whip in the field. "He made it into heroics and stayed in with Mr. Aizawa's teaching. He has to have some potential for it."

He then ran across the field back to where Sero was passed out. Izuku was impressed to say the least, especially to beat a hero like Midnight who plays to his weaknesses. Recovery Girl cleared her throat. "Maybe even something like that can be fuel to make a good hero." By this point, most of the class had arrived. Some of those who failed the practical portion made their way back to the dorms, but most of the class wanted to stay for the match that had yet to start.

Izuku watched as Todoroki and Bakugo seemed to still be arguing about their plan of action. It was almost painful to watch the two of them as they seemed so out of sync. All Might was standing in front of the gate. It seemed as though his strategy would be to wait for them at the gate and stop them. All Might then pulled back his fist in his familiar motion and leveled a path through the city from gate to gate. The entire class was shellshocked at the display of power.

Even Recovery Girl seemed to be speechless at the development. All Might truly appeared to be a villain as he descended upon the two students. His moves seemed to be designed to finish the fight quickly. Bakugo and Todoroki, for their part, seemed to agree that the path they wanted to choose was fighting and capturing, but All Might pulled no punches in the matter. All Might descended on them like a plague and knocked them around, giving no chance to counterattack or retreat.

It was frustrating to watch because there were no holes in All Might's assault. Most of the teachers seemed to be inconvenienced by the weights, but someone of All Might's strength wasn't comparable to students even with the weights. All Might destroyed any opportunity Bakugo and Todoroki attempted to create, not even giving them the chance to coordinate an attack.

The temperature of the observation room began to rise and Izuku found himself ready to attack All Might. From what he could tell, he seemed to be trying to prove a point as a hero rather than teach them a lesson as a teacher. "That stuck-up bastard. Recovery Girl what would happen if I were to interfere in their exam." Izuku asked, already making his way towards the door.

"Normally you would fail your own exam and be at risk of further academic actions; but if you were to follow the principal's logic of a villain attack, I don't see why you couldn't support them." Izuku smiled as he closed in on the door before Recovery Girl spoke again. "However, as a doctor I can't allow you to leave this room in that condition." Izuku glanced back at Recovery Girl and smiled.

"That's no problem, which direction is the city they're in right now." Recovery Girl tilted her head to the right, curious as Izuku sat for a moment. The rest of the class seemed shocked that Recovery Girl would allow the interference in the exam, and Iida began to chop his arms to reprimand Izuku when Yaoyorozu spoke up.

"Can you use your quirk from this distance?" She inquired as she continued to watch the screen. At this point, All Might was flinging them like ragdolls and leaving no opportunities anymore. Todoroki and Bakugo were simply firing their quirks off to attempt to create some kind of defense.

"I'm not sure honestly but I don't have a choice at the moment. Is that screen a live feed?" Recovery Girl hummed back an affirmative as she continued to watch. Izuku's stomach growled as he struggled to maintain focus. Suddenly, Yaoyorozu had an idea and she dug through her costume and produced a snack and threw it at Izuku as he continued to try and find the perfect timing. Izuku hungrily devoured the snack as he finally found their approximate location.

"That's a super calorie snack that should give you more than enough fuel to use your quirk." Yaoyorozu called. She normally wouldn't facilitate cheating, but Izuku had stood by her plan and helped see it through. She felt like the least she could do was back him up in this.

"Thanks. Now let's get started." The temperature of the room had finally evened out and Izuku's eyes glowed a brilliant green. "It was hard to find their heat sources, but now I've got it." Simultaneously, All Might was closing in on Bakugo yet again and Bakugo looked desperate. He had pain in his face, seeing the distance between himself and the number one hero. It was difficult for anyone to watch. He let loose a few weak explosions that seemed to do nothing to All Might. Suddenly Bakugo's next explosion expanded much larger than any explosion he had ever managed.

It was such a violent explosion that it even shook the observation room and for a time the screen was not visible aside from debris. When the smoke did begin to dissipate, part of the city in which they had been fighting had been completely leveled and there was a trail of ice leading into the distance. Bakugo and Todoroki were no where to be seen, but neither was All Might.

Izuku's classmates in the observation room were shocked. And even Recovery Girl wanted to blame old age on what she had just seen. From such a distance to produce that much damage in terms of attack power and combat, Izuku was definitely on an entirely different level than his classmates.

The camera angle continued to move until they found Todoroki dragging Bakugo down an ice path towards the gate. They both looked very worse for wear and Todoroki was sporting a noticeable limp as he made his way through the city. They crossed the gate without much incident and collapsed sparking concern through the class.

Recovery Girl gathered her equipment to begin moving them as All Might came into view on the screen. Parts of his costume were singed off and one of his weights was missing from the hand that was closest to the explosion, but otherwise he looked perfectly healthy. He gathered up the boys and made a dash back to campus. Izuku followed Recovery Girl to her office where All Might arrived soon after.

He seemed to share a glance with Recovery Girl before dashing out. Izuku could care less as he sat in the room while Recovery Girl treated the two. "Do you think less of All Might because of today?" She asked after she had finished the treatment. Izuku pondered over the question for a moment before he replied.

"I don't think less of him, but it seems like he's not interested in us. Like he's looking at something else and isn't training us as seriously." Recovery Girl didn't respond, but she looked conflicted as if she wanted to say something to Izuku. "I think he's similar to Stain in some ways. He sees a problem in our society, and he wants to fix it his way for better or worse."

Recovery Girl snorted at the comparison. "That's insulting, considering one is the number one hero and the other is a murderer. But otherwise for as long as I've known All Might, it's a valid statement. He does what he wants, and thinks is best without regard to how it might affect things." Izuku let Recovery Girl's last part hang in the air before he responded.

"I think one's problem was caused by the other. When I fought against the hero killer, he was definitely strong. But in a lot of reports, they said he was a failed hero course student. How does someone with that much potential fall out of hero school? It has to be a product of hero schools and society hunting powerful quirks." Recovery Girl seemed to ponder over the information before she paused and made a face. Izuku recognized this and then also paused and repeated what he had just said to himself. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that please forget I mentioned it."

Recovery Girl put up a small smile. "I'll trade one secret for another. All Might is more focused on someone else in this school and has neglected some of his teaching duties because of that". Izuku stared at Recovery Girl like she had grown a second head before he turned back.

"How long do you think it'll be before they wake up?" Izuku asked.

"You'll at least have enough time to change into your normal clothes and come back." Recovery Girl replied. Izuku nodded and left the room to change. Most of the class had already moved onto the dorms but Izuku made his way back to the infirmary and waited for Bakugo and Todoroki to wake up. It took a couple hours, but eventually they stirred awake and Recovery Girl told them about what happened. She left out the part of Izuku's involvement, leaving him to explain. He promptly cleared his throat to get the duos' attention. He then put his face to the floor as he bowed.

"I'm so sorry for interfering in your exam. I attacked All Might from the observation room using my quirk. I hope you two can forgive me." Bakugo reacted as one would expect and stormed out of the room violently while flipping his bed in his wake. Todoroki, on the other hand, sat calmly for a moment before he responded.

"I don't think I'm mad. We would have failed without your interference. I think the apology is truthfully unnecessary. The distance between us was too great." Todoroki said as he made his way out of the bed. "Are you heading to the dorm, Midoriya?" Izuku nodded as he collected his things and made his way back to the dorms with Todoroki in tow.

"So how did you manage to push All Might away so severely?" Todoroki asked as they made their way back to the dorm. Izuku replied quickly.

"I don't think I pushed him back that far. I think he just let his guard down there. But it took almost all my remaining energy to manage that attack." Todoroki nodded as they made their way back to the dorms. As they began to close in on the dorms, they saw a muscular form in front of the dorms. It was All Might still clothed in one of his suits. From what Izuku could tell from a distance, he was frowning. "Go ahead without me, Todoroki. I'll catch up in a little bit." Izuku instructed.

Todoroki made his way into the dorm and Izuku stood in front of All Might with his arms crossed before speaking. "I'm not sure what the principal is thinking allowing you to interfere with the exam like that, but that was very uncalled for, Young Midoriya. Heroes need to be able to stand on their own to be able to get stronger." Izuku glared for a moment before he sighed.

"If that's what you think that's fine, but one person can't hold up everyone. It'll always fail." Izuku stated calmly. All Might towered over him, but Izuku wouldn't back down in this situation. All Might could also feel that this conversation was going nowhere, and he sighed.

"You and I will be having a meeting with Nedzu and Aizawa to discuss this immediately. Come with me." Izuku followed All Might silently back towards the school building. He knew the consequences he could face when he decided to do it and was ready to face them, but it didn't make it less frustrating to be in this situation. He marched behind All Might to the principal's office where he found a group of teachers sitting.

They each had a small tablet and also the large monitor of the room they were in playing videos. One appeared to be the video from All Might's examination and the other appeared to be the video from the observation room. The conversation and video playing came to a halt as Izuku and All Might entered the room. "You've caused quite a stir yet again, Mr. Midoriya. Would you like some tea?" Izuku once again accepted the offer, taking a cup and having a seat in the corner.

"The room is almost in total agreement of the course of action we need to take here, but we're having a bit of trouble debating this. We thought you would like to hear the results of our deliberations." The principal stated with his usual enthusiasm, taking his place at the front of the room. The rest of the teachers seemed to go silent. "We'd like to hear your side of the story if that would be all right before we pass down our judgements."

Izuku let out a small chuckle as he spoke. "The video should be straightforward. I attacked All Might to create an opening for them. I knew that academic consequences would follow, but I couldn't allow the match to continue as it was." Izuku stated firmly. He wouldn't budge on this issue. If this was where he got expelled, that would be ok with him.

"I see Aizawa I'll leave it to you then." It was then that Izuku's homeroom teacher arose from his sleeping bag and made his way over to Izuku.

"All you do is bring trouble, problem child. Which is why you'll be staying in my class. Your specific grade will be lowered on the practical final. Bakugo and Todoroki will also be passing their exam." Aizawa said succinctly. Izuku was dumbfounded as he attempted to stammer out a response. And even All Might was staring at the room in somewhat disbelief. "They both fulfilled their obligation by passing the exam. Recovery Girl said it herself in this type of exam against an insurmountable opponent they would've needed assistance." Aizawa concluded.

All Might looked ready to blow a gasket, but Izuku could only stare in shock. "Now, Mr. Midoriya, get back to the dorms." Nedzu stated. Izuku took the opportunity and sprinted down the hallways toward the dorms. As All Might stared at his back as he retreated, he heard the principal clear his throat. "As for you All Might, have you been using most of your time limit to train Mirio." All Might froze for a moment before he turned.

"Yes, I feel as though he has the potential to replace me as the Symbol of Peace." All Might stated confidently. "That attack was strong, but it couldn't have defeated me in my prime. I am still confident Mirio will be the number one hero." The teachers watched the interaction between All Might and Nedzu carefully.

"Is it possible that that isn't what the next generation needs. There are several exceptional young heroes among the first years between the two classes as well as all throughout the school. Maybe your Symbol of Peace is an outdated concept." All Might seemed taken aback, but before he could begin Aizawa spoke.

"I see your point about his attack being impressive from that distance. Looking at it again, he did more damage to the city in that instance from two miles away than you did with your opening strike. If anything, it's possible you're betting on the wrong horse. And it's not just him. My entire class has amazing potential." All Might looked like he had been slapped at the statement.

"And what makes you so sure of that?" All Might replied sarcastically.

"Because I'm going to make that class the best generation of heroes, they can be and if their goal is to be the number one hero, I'll give them the tools to do it." Aizawa called back defiantly as he left the meeting grabbing his sleeping bag as he exited. Several of the teachers were in shock, but Present Mic and Midnight gathered their things and quickly followed after him.

"It almost sound like you're being soft on those kids." Midnight teased as she and Mic caught up with Aizawa.

"I'm not going soft. Those kids all have tremendous potential. Even if they do shorten my life every second of every day." Aizawa deadpanned. Mic and Midnight followed behind him and they left the main school building heading off for the day. Meanwhile, Izuku was laying in his class dorms.

"At this rate I'm really going to get expelled. But sometimes I have to do what I have to do." Izuku mumbled to himself. The class would have a small meeting tomorrow to discuss their results with Aizawa for tomorrow. Until then, he wouldn't let this bother him too much.


End file.
